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Changing Your Mind

1. Can I change my will or trust after I have executed it?

Life always changes. Relationships with loved ones sometimes gets better  or worse. After you have prepared your initial estate plan your individual circumstances change could change. You could acquire more assets, have a falling out with family members, your children will grow up, or you and your spouse may split up. Moreover, the law estate law and tax laws constantly change. Thus, a change in the law could radically effect the viability of your estate plan.  Most of these life changes will also cause you to change your estate plan. Therefore, it is imperative that you review your will and other estate planning documents on a periodic basis.

2. How is a will changed?

You can change, add to or even revoke your will any time before your death as long as you are physically and mentally competent to make the change. An amendment to a will is called a codicil. You can’t simply cross out old provisions in your will and scribble in new ones if you want the changes to be effective; you have to formally execute a codicil, using the same formalities as when executing the will itself. Any codicils must be dated so the court can tell whether they were made after your will. The codicil should be kept with the will.

3. How can I revoke my will?

Sometimes when you undergo a major life change(s), such as divorce, remarriage, winning the lottery, having more children, or getting the last child out of the house, then is advisable to to rewrite your will rather than making a lot of small changes through codicils. This procedure is best accomplished by executing a new will that states that it revokes the old one.

4. How can I amend my trust?

A trust is generally easier to amend than wills because there are fewer required formalities. You can modify a trust through a procedure called amendment. You should amend your trust when you want to change or add beneficiaries, change disposition of assets in the trust, or change trustees. You amend a trust by a writing, called an amendment to the trust. This amendment explains the changes, specifying the new additions or deletions, signed by you and dated. You should not detach a page from the trust document, retype it to include the new information, and put it back in, because this could invite a legal challenge from a disgruntled non-beneficiary or require a court’s construction of the trust.

You don’t have to write a formal amendment to the trust to add property to it, because a properly drafted trust will contain language giving you the right to include property acquired after the trust is drafted. You simply make sure the new property is titled as being owned by the trust and list it on the schedule of assets in the trust. You do have to amend the trust if the newly acquired property is going to a different beneficiary than the one already named in the trust, or if the trust has more than one beneficiary listed.

5. What kind of information do I need to assess if I need to update my estate plan?

If you are considering revising your estate plan then you should review this checklist;

1. Ask yourself if any of these changes have occurred in your life since you executed your will or trust.
2. Have you married or been divorced?
3. Have relatives or other beneficiaries or the executor died or has your relationship with them changed substantially and no provision is made in your will or trust for this contingency?
4. Has the mental or physical condition of any of your relatives or other beneficiaries or of your executor changed substantially?
5. Have you had more children or grandchildren, or have children gone to college or moved out of, or into, your home?
6. Have you moved to another state?
7. Have you bought, sold, or mortgaged a business or real estate?
8. Have you acquired major assets (car, home bank account)?
9. Have your business or financial circumstances changed significantly (estate size, pension, salary, ownership)?
10. Has New Jersey law (or have federal tax laws) changed in a way that might affect your tax and estate planning?

If you do update your estate plan, then you should also update your final instruction and will with the addresses and phone numbers of beneficiaries, trustees, executors and others mentioned in estate planning documents. It will also  make administrating your estate much easier.