Contrary to what you may believe, your estate plan is not something that you stick into a time capsule and forget about. The initial estate plan that you devise is going to reflect your life situation as it existed at the time you created this plan. All you can hope to do is to make your estate planning decisions based on how you felt at the time.
Over the years your life is inevitably going to change, and many of these changes are going to make your existing estate plan obsolete. This is something to keep in mind at all times if you want to be sure that your wishes are known every step of the way. We have all heard about examples of high-profile individuals who have left behind messy situations because they didn’t heed this advice.
Most things that happen to you personally are going to be within your control and if you’re proactive you can react to them immediately. But there are also events that can take place that you may not be aware of that can impact your estate. One of these would be changes to the estate tax exclusion.
You could create your estate plan based on the idea that the overall value of your estate falls within the estate tax exclusion. However, there could be changes to the laws that take place that reduce the exclusion, putting your assets in harm’s way.
Your estate planning attorney is always going to be aware of such changes. For this reason it is a good idea to schedule an annual estate plan review. If you have not yet done so right now would be a good time to set up an appointment with a qualified Oklahoma City estate planning lawyer to make sure that your existing estate plan is serving your interests.
Larry Parman
Author, President and Founding Attorney
Parman & Easterday
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