Most of us are well past the days of pop quizzes and multiple choice exams. But life has a way of testing us in other ways.
An estate plan is a good example. The true test of your plan does not happen while you are sitting in your attorney’s office signing documents. It happens later, when life changes and the plan actually needs to work.
If several years have passed since you created or reviewed your estate plan, would you still know exactly what it says?
More importantly, does your plan still reflect the people, responsibilities, relationships, and wishes that matter to you today?
Having an estate plan and knowing what is in it are two different things. This simple quiz can help you determine whether your plan still reflects your intentions or whether it may be time for another look.
Why Your Estate Plan Should Not Become a Distant Memory
Think back to the day you completed your estate plan.
You probably made a number of important decisions. You chose people you trusted. You considered what should happen to your property. You thought about who should step in if you could no longer make financial or medical decisions for yourself.
At the time, those decisions may have been very clear.
But life keeps moving.
Children grow up. Relationships change. People move. Financial circumstances evolve. The person you once trusted with an important responsibility may no longer be the right person for that role.
Your estate plan may eventually need to go into action whether you remember every detail or not.
That is why periodically reviewing your plan is an important part of maintaining it.
So, how well do you know yours?
1. Who Is Named as Executor of Your Will?
Your executor is responsible for carrying out the instructions in your will and helping administer your estate.
Do you remember who you chose?
More importantly, does that person know they have been named, and are they still willing and able to serve?
A person who was a good choice several years ago may not necessarily be the best choice today.
2. Who Is Your Backup Executor?
Naming the person you want to serve is important. Naming a backup can be just as important.
If your first choice is unable or unwilling to serve when the time comes, your plan should provide direction about who should step in next.
Without a successor, a court may eventually need to appoint someone you would not have personally chosen.
3. When Will Your Children or Grandchildren Receive Their Inheritance?
If your estate plan includes an inheritance for children or grandchildren, do you know when they will receive it?
The timing of an inheritance can matter just as much as the amount.
An age that seemed appropriate when your plan was created may no longer reflect a beneficiary’s maturity, financial habits, or current circumstances.
This is one of the reasons estate planning should not be viewed as a decision you make once and never revisit.
4. Who Is Named as Guardian for Your Minor Children?
For parents of minor children, this may be one of the most important questions in the entire quiz.
If something happened to you, who have you legally designated to care for your children?
And is that still the person you would choose today?
If you have not named a guardian, or the person you previously selected is no longer appropriate, a judge who does not personally know your children or your family circumstances may ultimately be involved in deciding who should care for them.
5. Who Can Handle Your Financial Affairs If You Cannot?
Estate planning is not only about what happens after you die. It is also about preparing for circumstances that could happen during your lifetime.
A financial power of attorney allows the person you name to handle certain financial matters on your behalf if you are unable to do so.
Do you remember who you chose?
Would you still trust that person to manage your bills, accounts, and financial responsibilities today?
6. Who Can Make Medical Decisions for You?
If you could not communicate your own medical decisions, who would you want speaking for you?
The person named in your healthcare power of attorney should know that you have selected them and understand your wishes before an emergency occurs.
This is an area where both legal planning and personal conversations matter.
Naming someone is important. Making sure they understand what matters to you is important too.
7. Do Your Beneficiary Designations Still Match Your Estate Plan?
Not everything you own necessarily passes through your will.
Retirement accounts, life insurance policies, and certain financial accounts may pass according to the beneficiary designation associated with the account.
That makes it important to review those designations along with the rest of your estate plan.
An outdated beneficiary designation could cause an asset to pass differently than you currently intend.
8. Are Your Major Assets Coordinated With Your Plan?
Creating a trust or estate plan is one step. Making sure your assets are properly coordinated with that plan is another.
For example, a trust designed to avoid probate may not accomplish its intended purpose for a home if the home was never deeded into the trust.
Your documents and your assets should work together.
9. Do the Right People Know Where Your Original Documents Are?
You may know exactly where your estate planning documents are stored. But does the person who may eventually need them know?
Your executor, trustee, or other trusted person should be able to locate the appropriate original documents when the time comes.
If those documents cannot be found, administering your estate may become more difficult or delayed.
10. Does Your Plan Address Your Digital Life?
Our lives increasingly extend beyond physical property.
Email accounts, online financial accounts, digital records, passwords, photographs, subscriptions, rewards accounts, and other digital assets may all need attention.
Does your estate plan address them?
And would the appropriate person know how to locate the information needed to manage your digital property?
Older planning documents may not adequately address access to digital accounts and assets, making this an important area to revisit as technology and your digital life change.
So, How Did You Do?
This is not about earning a perfect score.
It is about recognizing whether the estate plan you created still reflects the life you are living today.
If you answered most of these questions easily, that is a good opportunity to continue keeping your plan and the people involved with it current.
If several questions made you stop and think, it may simply mean it is time to pull out your documents and review the decisions you made.
And if you realized that several answers have changed, that is valuable information too.
The purpose of reviewing your estate plan is not to find mistakes. It is to make sure your plan continues to faithfully carry out your intentions.
Faithful Stewardship Includes Keeping Your Plan Current
Estate planning is not simply about completing documents and placing them in a drawer.
It is about making intentional decisions for the people and responsibilities God has entrusted to your care.
As your life changes, some of those decisions may need to change with it.
A periodic estate plan review gives you the opportunity to ask whether the people you selected are still the right people, whether your instructions still reflect your wishes, and whether your plan is prepared to work the way you intend when your family eventually needs it.
That is part of faithful stewardship too.
Has it been a while since you reviewed your estate plan, or did this quiz reveal something you would like to revisit?
Schedule a complimentary consultation with Faithful Stewardship Law Firm today.
“`