You’ve always been the responsible sort, so you have had your estate plans ready for a while now. In fact, you may need to update them in some critical ways.
Here are five areas of your estate plans that you probably haven’t thought about lately (if at all):
- Your digital assets: These days, most people have online accounts to do their banking, shopping, investing and socializing. You may have everything from a Photobucket account to iCloud storage out there, at a minimum. All of these things need to be handled once you’re gone, so your executor needs to have all of the relevant information.
- Any personal loans: If you’ve loaned money to an adult child, that could become an issue in your estate. You need to specify whether the loan should be forgiven after your death, repaid to the estate or treated as an advance on that child’s inheritance.
- The taxes due: Tax laws have changed dramatically in recent years. If you haven’t updated your estate plans with those new laws in mind, you could shortchange your heirs in unexpected ways.
- Shipping costs: If you want someone who lives a fair distance away to receive the family china, your will should probably assign the delivery costs to the estate. Otherwise, your well-intentioned gift could become a financial burden on your heir.
- Your executor: Is the person named as your executor still the best person for the job? Lives and circumstances change. If it’s been a while since you thought about this particular issue, it’s time to address it again.
Updating your estate plans isn’t necessarily hard, but it should be done regularly. If you’re unsure what you need to do next, an experienced attorney can help.
