While many times the estate planning process is talked about as a one-time deal, that’s not the truth. Residents living in Washington DC should continually update their will to help ensure that it not only stays valid but that it’s less likely to be overturned if it’s contested after your passing. While you can establish any sort of schedule to update your will, there are some typical times that you’ll want to do so.
Major life changes
Estate planning is something that you always want to look at when you’re going through any sort of major life change. Some common examples of these changes are a death in the family, having children, getting married or even starting a business. Typically, these major life changes will affect your current estate plans. So you want to plan and update your will when you go through these major life changes so that you can ensure your last will and testament is valid and updated with exactly what you want.
Plan for every three to five years
Apart from updating your will when major life changes happen, it’s a good idea to have a set schedule to regularly update it. Most professionals will recommend updating your will every three to five years. At each set interval, you’ll want to read over your existing last will and testament to be refreshed as far as what it states. And, you’ll want to notate any changes that you would like your lawyer to make to the will that reflects your current wishes.
While a last will and testament is an important estate planning document that every adult should have filled out, it’s not a one-and-done type of deal. The more regularly you keep up with updating your will, the less likely it’ll be that it gets contested after your passing. Also, this helps to ensure that your wishes at the time of your death are reflected in your most current will.