Written by: Attorney Raymond Chandler
An estate plan reflects your life at the moment you signed it, and your life doesn’t stay still. A plan built five years ago, however well it was drafted, may not reflect a divorce, a new grandchild, a sold property, or a change in who you’d actually trust to carry out your wishes today. The good news is you don’t need to guess when to check in. There’s a specific list of events that should trigger a real review, not just a mental note to get to it eventually.
Key takeaways
- Marriage, divorce, a new child or grandchild, and a death among your named decision-makers are the clearest signals your plan needs updating.
- A significant change in assets, buying or selling a home, a new business, an inheritance, means your plan may not reflect what you actually own anymore.
- Moving to a new state can affect whether your existing documents are still fully effective.
- A change in who you’d trust as executor, trustee, or agent under power of attorney matters just as much as a change in your assets.
- Beyond specific triggers, a periodic review, roughly every three to five years, catches the smaller drifts that add up over time.
Family changes
Marriage or divorce is the clearest trigger there is. A former spouse named as abeneficiary with a financial or insurance institution doesn’t automatically get removed just because the relationship ended, and an outdated designation can create real confusion, or worse, unintended inheritance, if it’s never corrected.
A new child or grandchild is worth a review too, not just to add them as a beneficiary, but to revisit guardian designations if you have minor children, and to think through whether a trust structure still fits a growing family the way it did when it was first built.
The death of someone named in your plan, whether that’s your named executor, a successor trustee, or an agent under your power of attorney, leaves a gap that needs to be filled. This one gets missed more than any other, because there’s rarely a single obvious moment that reminds you to check.
Financial and asset changes
Buying or selling significant property, especially real estate, changes what your plan needs to account for. If you have a living trust, a newly purchased home needs to be integrated into it just as much as anything you owned when the trust was first signed. A sold property that was previously titled to the trust needs the same attention on the way out.
Starting a business, receiving a meaningful inheritance, or a significant change in your overall net worth are all worth a review, since the strategies that made sense for a smaller or simpler estate don’t always scale cleanly as things grow more complex.
Moving to a new state
Estate planning law varies from state to state. A will or trust that was properly executed in your previous state is generally still valid after a move, but the specific tools that make the most sense (community property rules, homestead protections, Medicaid planning strategies) can differ enough that a plan built for one state doesn’t fully serve you in another. This is worth a genuine review, not just an assumption that everything transfers automatically.
A change in who you trust
Sometimes nothing about your assets or family structure changes, but your confidence in a named decision-maker does. A falling-out, a health change in someone you named as agent, or simply reconsidering whether your oldest child is really the right choice for a role that requires financial judgment, all deserve a second look, even without a dramatic triggering event.
The review that isn’t tied to any single event
Beyond specific triggers, we recommend a periodic review roughly every three to five years, even if nothing dramatic has happened. Laws change. The value and makeup of your assets shift gradually in ways that don’t feel significant year to year but add up over time. And plans that were built around a specific life stage sometimes just need a fresh look to make sure they still reflect what you’d actually want. Because of this, our team conducts a maintenance program for our clients that includes regular reviews, so that you always have the most up-to-date information possible.
What an update usually involves
A review doesn’t necessarily mean starting over. Often it’s confirming your current documents still say what you intend, updating a beneficiary designation or two, adding a newly acquired property into an existing trust, or replacing a named decision-maker who’s no longer the right fit. Occasionally it does mean a more substantial restructuring, but that’s the exception, not the rule, and it’s exactly what a real review is meant to catch before it becomes urgent.
Frequently asked questions
How often should I review my estate plan? Roughly every three to five years, and immediately after any major life event: marriage, divorce, a new child, a significant change in assets, or a move to a new state.
Does my will automatically update itself after a divorce? No. Missouri has some statutory protections around former spouses in certain circumstances, but the safest approach is a direct review and update rather than relying on the law to fix it for you.
Do I need to update my trust every time I buy or sell property? Yes, if the property is meant to be part of the trust. A newly purchased home needs to be integrated into the trust just like anything you owned when it was originally signed.
Is my will still valid if I move to a different state? Generally yes, but the plan as a whole may not fully reflect what makes sense under your new state’s laws, which is why a review after a move is worth doing.
If it’s been a few years, or something significant has changed in your life, since you last looked at your estate plan, call Polaris Estate Planning & Elder Law for a conversation. We’ll help you figure out exactly what, if anything, needs updating.
Ready to secure your family’s future or have a question about getting started? Call Polaris Estate Planning and Elder Law today.
St. Charles Office: (636) 202-1364
St. Louis County: (314) 470-8317
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