Spring Cleaning your Estate Plan

Welcome Spring! The change in season is a good time to do some “Spring cleaning” around your estate plan.

Here are some steps to making your estate plan sparkle:

1.     Organize all estate planning documents in a binder.

If your estate planning documents are not already organized in a binder you may want to consider doing so. Better yet, add tabs to the binder for each document. This will make your documents easy to find for your successors.

If your documents are already in a binder make sure they are organized. Financial institutions often require copies of your trust documents and your doctor will require your healthcare power of attorney and living will so inevitably things might have gotten out of place while you were in a rush to provide copies.

The location of your binder is also important. Wherever you store it, be sure that your successors have access. You do not want it in a safe without the code.

2.     Throw out any drafts.

Sometimes its hard to throw out documents that seem important. However, having unsigned drafts lying around only causes confusion. On numerous occasions, I have seen loved ones try to present unsigned drafts to banks or the court. 

3.     Make a digital copy.

Take the time to scan your estate planning documents and save them to a safe digital space. This makes it easier to present or share copies. Just be sure to update your digital copies if the underlying originals change.

4.     Update any asset lists (or create one).

One of the first steps as a successor is to take an inventory of your assets. It is much easier if you have created this in advance. This can be as simple as statements for all current bank accounts, life insurance, and retirement accounts. Do not forget digital assets!

If you have any questions about “spring cleaning” your estate plan or maybe making some bigger changes do not hesitate to reach out.