Estate Plan Reviews & Adjustments

You may find yourself with a lot on your plate and when you do, you have to set your priorities. There are some matters that must be revisited every year, or every five or ten years, and there are others that are in your lap every day. When you are managing your investments things are changing by the second, and you are well aware of the need to constantly react to these changing market conditions. If you run your own business, the changes come in rapid-fire fashion as well and priorities can shift radically overnight.
This having been established, estate planning and the long terms plans that you have made for your twilight years are also impacted by the constant ebb and flow of change. When you originally construct your estate plan you have no choice but to work with the various relevant factors as they existed at that time. But things are always in flux, and what made sense in 1990, 2000, or even 2009 may no longer be appropriate in 2011.
This can be due to things that are out of your control like fluctuations in the estate tax rate and exclusion amount, the yield on your retirement investments, property values, and long-term care costs. And the need to review and potentially revise your estate plan can also arise as a result of changing circumstances that are specific to you and your family.
Depending on your age, health, and personal proclivities you may realize that the estate plan that you worked up ten or twenty years ago, or even the one you did last year is indeed outdated, but feel as though you still have plenty of time left to adjust it when you really need to do so. However, it is your loved ones who are in essence being asked to take that risk. Perhaps, it is best to stop procrastinating and have your plan reviewed right away.

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Gerald M. Dorn, Estate Planning Attorney

Gerald Dorn is a shareholder and has been a partner at Anderson, Dorn & Rader, Ltd. Since 1998. Mr. Dorn has extensive experience serving wealthy families and business owners in the development of estate, tax and asset protection planning strategies. He made the decision to focus his practice in the area of estate planning after witnessing the personal grief and financial loss suffered by several of his clients as a result of poor planning. These experiences motivated him to dedicate his professional life to assisting his clients to preserve their life’s work for their heirs and to create a lasting legacy for those they love. Mr. Dorn is able to accomplish his mission through the use of a vast number of estate planning tools, both basic and advanced, for all of his clients at Anderson, Dorn & Rader, Ltd.

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