Estate planning is a long and exhausting process, in which it may benefit you to have legal guidance due to the sheer complexities involved in estate affair management. Of course, your work is not over after you create your estate plan, either.
Rather, you must review your plan in order to ensure that it matches up with your current life circumstances, desires and wishes.
Major life changes
Fidelity examines the importance of keeping your estate plan up to date with your current life circumstances. Your estate plan only serves a purpose if it accurately reflects your current life situation. For example, say that in your will you left something to a spouse that you later divorce. Chances are, you will not want to leave them in your will, but if you do not remove them, they may still have a claim to your assets.
Thus, it is most beneficial to review your estate plan any time you undergo a major life change. This can include changes in beneficiaries, in assets or in your own personal location. Changes in beneficiaries may include the death of a loved one, a divorce, an estrangement, a marriage or re-marriage, an adoption, or a birth.
Alterations in financial status
Changes in assets will include anything that either negatively or positively impacts your assets to a notable degree. This can include filing for bankruptcy due to debt, or coming into a large inheritance after the death of a family member.
Changes in location relate to where you physically live. Not every state has the same laws for estate plans, and you want to ensure that yours is valid under the law of the state you currently live in.