FAST FACTS
- Update your estate plan when it's necessary. You may not pay a price today for missing estate planning updates, but you will pay a larger price down the road.
- While you don't have to update your estate plan, the same way you don't need to get your oil changed, it's strongly recommended.
Today's video is going to be about updating your estate plan. I like to think of it as a statement and a question, "When should I update my estate plan?" or, "Update or else." And to start of I'd like to share a story.
Make Estate Planning Updates Sooner Than Later
I was talking to a lady that we had done her estate plan. Her estate plan is a very quality plan, but something had changed. We were talking and I had to tell her that her plan needed amending. It wasn't a large amendment.
It wasn't a huge, voluminous thing, but it was, nonetheless, an amendment. She got mad at me. I think that she actually thought that I was making this thing up, and I wasn't. The issue was that for her, this was something that was truly needed to be done. Not only that, but she was over the age of 70.
If you're 70, you're older than 30 or 40, and you're closer to the time when you might need your estate plan to work properly. I was actually attempting to help her. Yes, of course, I understand, I was going to have to charge her some money to do that.
To have an expectation that you're going to be able to buy a car and never tune it up or put a new set of tires on it, or that you're going to have a deck and never put a new coat of stain on it or ever touch your house again, it's unrealistic. It really is. Unfortunately, she was of that mindset.
I felt really bad. I tried to tell her, look, if you don't fix this, you don't have to fix it. You don't have to, but if you don't make this change, that there's going to be a negative consequence and there's going to be a price to be paid. You may not pay that price today, but there's going to be a much larger price to pay down the road.
Not Reviewing and Updating Leads to More Costs Later On
It took me by surprise. Even though I do this every day, it took me by surprise, the amount of suspicion, the amount of, I guess, anger that she had towards me. Anyway, it was a shock. Again, we live in America. You don't have to get things done if you don't want to. You don't have to get your oil changed. You don't have to get your deck re‑stained.
You don't have to get your estate plan updated if needed. We live in America and so you're free to make choices.
We at Fouts Law Group focus on asset protection for you and for your family. We specialize in that. We are not general practitioners. We want to share our knowledge with you. We want you to have a plan that actually functions and doesn't just look pretty.
Give us a call if you'd like to schedule a free consultation. When you come in, I'll also give you a copy of my book. It is a real book available on Amazon, but you won't have to pay for it. It's called "Estate Planning in Georgia," how to leave your assets in a smart way and protect it.
