How frequently should I update my documents?
This is a great and a common question. Look at major life events such as marriage, divorce, death, the birth of a child, the purchase of a property, or the sale of a property as a time to stop and ask yourself if you should update your trust. At our office, you can call and ask that question without any charge. Gaudy Law or one of our attorneys will quickly look at your documents on MyCase and let you know.
Generally, the big events are the birth of children, marriage, the sale of a property, and if one of your trustees you’ve named has died. In these cases, we would recommend making a change and updating your documents.
Every couple of years I send a letter out to all my clients asking them to take a look at their documents and to let us know if anything’s happened by completing a provided form.
What about cars, boats, collectibles? Are they as important?
Items like cars, boats, and collectibles are important but not as important as real property and similar items. If you buy a car or a boat, or anything lesser than real property, we don’t immediately worry about updating the trust as a result of that.
If you open a new bank account or investment account, you or your investment advisor can certainly call us at no additional charge to find out if an update is required. Typically, it’s only big life events that change the trust. The nice thing about a trust is it doesn’t have to change every time your life changes.
