Your Plan Needs Attention After Signing
At Monteforte Law, we have a 3-Year Check-Up process because your estate plan deserves attention after the signing appointment. Your documents may have been exactly right when you signed them, but the people and property they address will not necessarily stay the same. A review gives us a chance to look at the plan against your current circumstances while there is still an opportunity to make appropriate changes.
How the 3-Year Check-Up Works
Our office sends a reminder when your check-up comes due. The review is included with most of our plans, and clients with entry-level plans can schedule it as a paid meeting. We explain those arrangements on our 3-Year Check-Up page. You should know which applies to your plan instead of assuming either that a review is included or that you are on your own once the original work is finished.
The People in Your Plan Change
There are several reasons a review can be useful even when nothing feels urgent. The person you named as trustee may have moved, become ill, or taken on responsibilities that make the job difficult. Your children may now be adults with circumstances you could not have anticipated. Someone who was comfortable handling money five years ago may be facing an addiction, a divorce, or financial problems. Those changes can affect what you want the plan to accomplish.
So Do the Assets
The assets can change quietly too. You may have opened an account after signing, inherited property, refinanced a home, or sold something that belonged to the trust. A financial institution may have changed, and you may not remember whether the replacement account was opened in the same name. These are ordinary transactions, but their effect on the plan deserves attention. A review is an opportunity to compare the current records with the arrangement you intended.
When the Law Changes
Changes in the law may also affect the options worth discussing. That does not mean every legislative change requires new documents, or that every older trust has become defective. We want to evaluate whether a change matters to your particular plan. Sometimes the answer is that the existing structure still serves you well. Sometimes an update is worth considering because your goals can be addressed more effectively or because a rule you relied on has changed.
Revisit the Personal Decisions
The meeting should also give you a chance to revisit decisions that are personal rather than technical. Perhaps you originally wanted your children to receive their inheritances outright, but you now prefer continued trust protection. You may want to change a charitable gift or reconsider who would make medical decisions. You do not need a legal crisis to ask whether the plan still reflects your wishes. Being able to discuss those choices is one reason we value an ongoing relationship.
Do Not Wait for the Reminder
Do not wait for the scheduled reminder if something significant happens sooner. A death, serious diagnosis, marriage, divorce, major purchase, or sale may justify a conversation now. The three-year interval gives you a regular opportunity for review; it is not an instruction to leave the plan untouched until then. We also cannot know about a family event or new account unless you tell us, so keeping the plan current involves communication in both directions.
A Review Is Not a Sales Pitch
A review does not automatically mean replacing the plan or purchasing more work. You may leave knowing that the documents still fit and that no changes are needed. If revisions are appropriate, you should understand what they are intended to accomplish and what work would be involved. We want you to have that conversation while you can make the decisions yourself, rather than leaving your children to discover years later that the plan no longer matches the family you intended it to protect.
Start with a free 15-minute consult call with Nicole Ott, our Lead Intake Coordinator. If you are not a client yet, tell her what you have now and when it was signed. That is usually enough for us to say what to do next.
