It is usually not enough to have your estate plan done once. Your life goes on, and your estate plan must adapt to your needs and address the circumstances that change over time. Your estate plan needs to be revisited every couple of years and reviewed and updated as the laws and your needs and priorities change.

The purpose of our estate plan maintenance program is to make sure that your plan is always up to date and works as you intended. The program ensures that the legal strategies implemented in your estate plan are managed and maintained over time and address various changes that may require modifications of the original trust terms. Such circumstances often include:

• Birth, disability, or death of a family member;
• Marriage or Divorce;
• Changes in your relationships and priorities over time;
• A new job or retirement;
• Unexpected events in the beneficiaries’ lives;
• Changes in your assets and overall net worth;
• New federal or state laws that impact your plan.

The estate plan maintenance program allows us to stay in touch with you and proactively monitor your estate plan, so we can address various issues as soon as they arise and no opportunity to make your plan better is missed.

The estate plan maintenance program includes the following:

Regular Estate Plan Review Meetings: We will schedule regular meetings with you to review your plan. During this meeting we will identify and address any necessary or recommended changes and address them. We will also review the roles and responsibilities of the people involved in your estate plan and make sure that all of your newly acquired assets are properly titled to your trust.

No Charge for Simple Changes to Your Estate Plan: If your plan requires a quick change of a fiduciary or beneficiary designation or incorporating the name of an afterborn child to your plan, we will prepare the necessary documents and assist with their execution with no additional charge. More comprehensive changes may need a separate agreement.

Assistance with Property Transfers: Simple property transfers to your trust are covered by the maintenance plan. So is the assistance via phone or email regarding the property transfers to your trust. The no cost assistance does not cover complex or time-consuming transfers.

Periodic Updates to Your Financial and Healthcare Powers of Attorney: Although legally your powers of attorney do not expire, but the financial institutions and medical care providers will consider them “aged out” if the signatures are older than a few years. Thus, even if your appointments remain the same, it is a good idea to restate your powers of attorney every couple of years to ensure that they would be readily acceptable.

No Charge for Calls or Emails: All emails and calls pertaining to your existing estate plan will be provided free of charge.

Storage of Your Documents: We will provide continued accessible online storage of your estate planning documents.

The Estate Plan Maintenance Program Cost:

Single Individual $ 59 per month/ or $650 annually

Married Couple $ 89 per month/ or $950 annually

We may increase the fees for the Estate Plan Maintenance Program from time to time. However, no increase will exceed 10% of the current fee and there will be no increase in maintenance fees more frequently than every two years.

The estate plan maintenance program does not include any tax return preparation, fiduciary or trust administration services, comprehensive changes to your estate planning documents, business interest transfers, entity formation, new legal strategies or modifications required due to the significant changes in the law.