If your house is looking a little shabby after the long New England winter, you may have already begun to think about a deep cleaning when spring arrives. After all, spring cleaning your home is a good way to maintain its value. According to reporting from Healthline, it may also make you healthier.
When you are getting your home ready for summer, you may also want to take a look at your estate plan. That is, like your house, your estate plan probably can benefit from some spring cleaning.
Remove old beneficiaries
If you have married, divorced, had children or otherwise changed the makeup of your family during the past year, your estate plan may list the wrong beneficiaries. Alternatively, you may have loved ones who do not appear on your will, life insurance or other documents. Either way, removing old beneficiaries is something you may want to do every spring.
Rethink your wishes
Your estate plan should be an easy-to-follow roadmap of your wishes. If some time has passed since you reviewed your plan, though, your planning documents may no longer reflect your genuine intentions. Therefore, you may want to take a close look at the following:
- Advance directives
- Powers of attorney
- Wills
- Trusts
Discuss your goals
Even if you make no changes to your estate plan during the spring, your review may remind you of the conversations you need to have. Specifically, to reduce your chances of having someone contest your estate plan, you may want to discuss your goals with those closest to you. Remember, if you can get buy-in from your loved ones, your estate plan may be even more valuable.
Ultimately, by committing to spruce up your estate plan every spring, you can be certain you retain as much control as possible over your assets, end-of-life care and other significant matters.
