Founding Attorney
Creating a comprehensive estate plan is a critical step in protecting your family, protecting yourself during periods of incapacity and unavailability, preserving the value of your estate, and ensuring that your assets are passed along to your chosen heirs. However, the life stage in which you create your plan may not last forever. You could be married at the time of executing a last will and testament, but later divorced. You may not have any children when you establish a trust with your spouse, but then have kids later.
Your life will change, so it’s important that your estate plan changes along with it. Let Kallio Law Firm explain what you need to know and then get to work revising your plan.
Updating a Will After Divorce
If you draft a last will and testament leaving your estate to your spouse, and you later divorce, then under Louisiana law the portion of property that was to be given to your ex-spouse will be revoked. However, these assets do not automatically get distributed to someone else, like your children. Updating your will can specify who will inherit what your ex-spouse would have inherited.
You may also need to update the will to designate a new executor (personal representative) if you named your ex-spouse or a member of their family to serve in this capacity. For instance, if you get divorced but had previously named your ex-father-in-law as an executor, you should revise your will by selecting someone else to fulfill this important role.
Changes to Make After You Have Children
Let’s say you are married with no children, and you have drafted a last will and testament leaving everything to your spouse after your death. Later, you have children. You may want to update your last will and testament to leave them an inheritance. Also, you will probably want to designate a guardian for your minor children, which will be critical if you and your spouse were to die at the same time.
If you have a trust (or you have never created one), consider your children and how they may impact this legal instrument. Upon your death, you could want to have some sort of financial provision to care for your children as beneficiaries. A trust document is a wonderful way to avoid probate and save taxes while providing financial support to your loved ones.
Changes to Make If Something Happens to Your Children
Tragically, many parents lose their children, which forces them to take the painful step of revising their estate documents. Perhaps your child was promised something in your will, but since they have passed these assets need to be distributed to someone else. Or you may have named an adult child as your executor, and now you need to select another person.
There are also cases in which trusts have been established for a child who later develops a serious personal problem like a drug addiction. This, in turn, could lead your child to make unwise financial decisions. You want to care for them, but you don’t want them using your money to finance their addiction. A spendthrift trust could be exactly what you need to meet these dual goals.
A Succession Plan for Your Family Business
Have you started a family business since creating your estate plan? If so, you’re probably working hard to make the business a success, one that you can pass on as your legacy to your children some day. However, what happens to your company if you suddenly die or become incapacitated? How will it be run – and, perhaps more important, who will run it?
A business succession plan is like an estate plan for your business. It can determine the steps that must be taken after your death or incapacity to ensure a smooth transition to new leadership while protecting the viability of your company.
Helping Adapt Your Plan to Life’s Changes
A last will and testament, trust, business succession plan; all of these must be reviewed and revised in the event of a divorce, remarriage, the birth or death of a child, and other major life events affecting the well-being of your family. For similar reasons, you should also examine your powers of attorney, living will, and advance healthcare directive. There might be even more documents to update or to execute in light of the above and other major life events, such as life insurance policies.
You never know what tomorrow will bring, so take the time today to reach out to a qualified estate planning law firm to make sure your estate plan is ready to meet your objectives. Call Kallio Law Firm to get started.
