When to update your estate plan

An estate plan is a snapshot of your wishes, your family, and the law on the day you signed it. All three of those change.

The baseline rule: review every 3 years even if nothing has obviously changed. The trigger rule: certain life events demand an immediate review — sometimes a complete rewrite. Below is the calm, prioritized list.

Life events that demand updates

• Marriage or divorce. Florida law revokes some will provisions on divorce by default, but doesn't catch everything. New marriage may trigger spousal elective share rights you didn't account for.
• Birth or adoption of a child. Pretermitted child rules can give an unintended share. Update guardianship nominations.
• Death of a beneficiary. Especially a spouse or primary beneficiary. Contingent provisions need to be reviewed.
• Death of your named personal representative or trustee. Pick a new one before you need to.
• Move to or from Florida. Florida's elective share, homestead, and ancillary administration rules differ enough from other states that the plan needs review.
• Major asset acquisition or sale. New house, business, inheritance, or sale of any of those.
• Diagnosis affecting capacity (dementia, progressive illness). Update while still competent. Powers of attorney and trustee succession matter most here.

Smaller triggers

• Beneficiary's life events — they marry, divorce, have children, become disabled, develop addiction issues. Distribution provisions may need adjusting.
• Change in financial position — net worth doubled or halved. Tax planning provisions may need attention; staged distributions may need calibration.
• Change in business interests — started a company, sold one, became a partner. Business succession planning needs review.
• Change in charitable intent. Adding or removing a charity, or scaling the bequest.
• Federal estate tax law changes. Major tax reforms (the federal exemption changed from $5M to $11.2M to $13.6M in recent years) can render parts of older trusts unnecessary or counterproductive.

Florida-specific triggers

• Moving TO Florida. New residents should review their out-of-state plan against Florida's homestead, elective share, and probate rules. Many out-of-state trusts don't account for Florida specifics.
• Moving FROM Florida. Same in reverse — your Florida plan may have provisions that don't make sense in your new state. Often you'll need a new plan in the new state.
• Buying a Florida home as a snowbird. Even if you stay domiciled elsewhere, the Florida real estate creates ancillary administration risk that didn't exist before. Lady Bird deed or trust ownership is often worth considering.
• Florida statutory changes. Major Florida probate code amendments (like the 2026 reform doubling the summary admin cap) sometimes change the cost-benefit of trust structures.

What happens if you don't update

Estate plans don't 'expire' — but stale plans cause real problems. We see them every week in probate.

• Wrong beneficiaries inherit. Ex-spouses, deceased relatives, or people who've fallen out of your life still listed as primary beneficiaries on retirement accounts (the most-forgotten update). Beneficiary designations override your will.
• Tax planning that no longer makes sense. Trust provisions designed for the $5M federal exemption may now be triggering bypass-trust mechanics that aren't useful at $13.6M.
• Probate triggered unintentionally. A trust funded with everything except the new car or the new account — and now those slip into probate.
• Family members in unexpected positions. Named PRs or trustees who've moved, died, or become unable to serve.
• Children of new relationships unintended. Pretermitted child rules can give them a default share even if the will is silent.

The light review vs. the full overhaul

Not every change requires a full rewrite. Most don't. Here's how to think about scope:

• Light review (no fee, sometimes): 30-minute call to walk through your existing plan, identify red flags, decide if any changes are needed. We do these for past clients without charge; new clients get a flat rate.
• Codicil or amendment ($300–$500): small change to a will or trust that doesn't restructure the plan. Add or remove a beneficiary, change the personal representative, update an address.
• Restated trust or new will ($1,500–$2,500): meaningful changes that justify a clean document instead of patches on patches.
• Full plan rebuild ($2,500–$5,000): marriage/divorce, kids, move to FL, major financial change, or 10+ year-old plan that's accumulated cruft.

The 3-year baseline check

Even if nothing obvious has changed, set a 3-year reminder. Things drift quietly:

• Beneficiary designations on financial accounts (the #1 source of estate-planning regret).
• Powers of attorney — banks increasingly reject older POAs (5+ years).
• Healthcare directives — providers sometimes balk at older HIPAA authorizations.
• Successor trustees and PRs — people you named years ago may have moved, retired, or fallen out of touch.
• Trust funding — assets you forgot to retitle into the trust as you acquired them.

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