Are There Any Maintenance Costs To An Estate Plan?
Sometimes there are maintenance costs to an estate plan, but I try to craft estate plans in a way that minimizes the costs, if there are any. The time that you are going to spend money on an existing estate plan is when things change. If things don’t change so much from the time that you create your estate plan, then there aren’t going to be too many maintenance costs. In my firm, I’m always available to answer the basic questions. For instance, if family structures change and the client wants to change their documents in order to reflect a different family structure than they previously had, the estate plan will have to be changed. If the assets have significantly changed (which might be the case if they became very successful over the past five or ten years and they’ve acquired real estate assets) or when tax laws make a significant change, then the estate plan will have to be changed.
I try to structure the Trusts so that they can weather tax law changes, but nothing can weather the unknown 100%. It’s always possible that tax laws could change in a significantly adverse way. To handle that possibility, I build into the Irrevocable Trusts that I created terms necessary to allow for changes to the plan to accommodate future adverse tax law changes that cause the Trust to not perform in the way the client wanted it to perform when they originally set out. As a general rule, your estate plan should be reviewed every five years to ascertain if any changes have occurred that would affect the desire result.
If there have been no major changes and things are pretty stable, or there is a family with children and the income has been stable and there haven’t been any significant additions with life insurance policies and no tax law changes, then you’ll look at it less frequently. However, if there are changes in the asset base as a couple or individual grows, or changes in the tax law or family structure, then that would be the best time to revisit the estate plan to see if it’s actually continuing to meet the goals as you had, as they have been modified over time. It’s a worthwhile expenditure because usually you spend a small amount to make sure that you maintain a significant amount in the end.
For more information on Maintenance Costs of An Estate Plan in Long Island, Nassau County and Suffolk County, a FREE phone consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (516) 806-0762 today.
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