Clients who have had a revocable living trust created are reminded that there are a few maintenance tasks that should be completed from time to time to keep your estate plan current. These maintenance tasks consist of a periodic review of the following key areas of your trust to determine if the documents are still current. If you have a specific area of concern, please contact us as soon as possible so we can assist you in resolving the issues. These areas are:
1. Do the estate planning documents complie with current estate law?
If Modular Financial Solutions, Inc. assisted you in creating your trust and you are a retained client, this is an ongoing review that is monitored by our firm and the estate planning firm that prepared the documents. Contact us if you have any questions about the currency of your documents.
If you have a trust created by another firm you should have a contact person at that firm that can periodically review and update your trust documents when required. This is especially important if your documents were created in a state other than Arizona.
2. Has there been any changes to your beneficiary designations?
Assets held by your trust are subject to beneficiary instructions in the trust. For separately held contract assets (e.g. life insurance, retirement accounts, IRA, designated beneficiary accounts) the beneficiaries designations apply. These beneficiaries should be reviewed from time to time to determine if they still reflect your wishes and estate plan and to make sure they include any changes (additions or deletions) you desire.
3. Has there been any life changes?
Has there been a birth or death in the family and how does it affect your estate plan? If the death is a "triggering event" such as the death of a spouse
you should contact us right away. We can assist you in determining what actions to take and when, as described in the Trustee/Executor Duties usually included in your trust documents. A divorce or marriage, as well as any new charitable organizations you want to add is also a "triggering event." Changes to guardians for children, successor trustee designations and designations for powers of attorney are also among the most common changes in this area.
4. Have you added any assets since your trust was created?
An inheritance or purchase (e.g. second home, time share, etc.) should be properly titled to make full use of your trust. Depending on your estate plan, these assets may be held by your trust or by other ownership instruments consistent with your estate plan.
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