Creating an estate plan isn’t something you should do once and forget.
Your relationships change. Families grow. You may buy a home, build a business, get married or divorced, or simply change your mind about who you trust to handle important decisions on your behalf. When life changes, the documents you created years ago may no longer reflect what you want today.
In Pennsylvania, certain events can even affect estate planning documents automatically under state law. That makes periodic reviews particularly important after major changes in your family or financial circumstances.
Whether you already have an estate plan or have been meaning to create one, understanding when to revisit these decisions can help protect you and the people who matter to you.
Quick Estate Planning Checkup
Has any of this happened since you created your estate plan, or have you never created one?
- You got married, engaged, divorced, or remarried.
- You had or adopted a child.
- Your children are now adults.
- You bought a home or significant property.
- You started, bought, or sold a business.
- Your income, assets, or financial circumstances changed substantially.
- Someone named in your will or power of attorney died, became incapacitated, or is no longer the person you would choose.
- Your relationship with a beneficiary has changed.
- You moved to Pennsylvania from another state.
- You cannot remember the last time you reviewed your documents.
- You do not have a will.
- You have never named someone to handle financial matters if you become unable to do so.
- You have never named someone to make health care decisions if you cannot speak for yourself.
If one or more of these situations applies to you, it does not necessarily mean your documents need to be changed. It does mean that reviewing your current plan, or considering whether you need one, may be worthwhile.
When Should You Consider Reviewing Your Estate Plan?
No single life stage makes estate planning suddenly important. You may have good reasons to create or update your plan much earlier than you expect.
Consider reviewing your estate planning documents after:
- Getting married or engaged
- Separating or filing for divorce
- Remarrying
- Having or adopting a child
- Buying a home or other significant property
- Starting, buying, or selling a business
- Receiving an inheritance or experiencing another significant financial change
- A child reaching adulthood
- The death or incapacity of someone named in your documents
- A significant change in a personal relationship
- Moving into or out of Pennsylvania
- Going several years without reviewing your existing documents
Not every change requires you to rewrite your estate plan. But each can be a useful reason to make sure the decisions reflected in your documents are still the ones you would make today.
Why Marriage Can Affect an Existing Will in Pennsylvania
Getting married is one of the clearest reasons to review a will.
Under 20 Pa.C.S. § 2507, if you marry after making your will, your surviving spouse may generally receive the share of your estate that the spouse would have received if you had died without a will, unless the existing will provides a greater share or was made in contemplation of that marriage.
In other words, simply keeping an old will in place may not necessarily produce the estate plan you intended after marriage.
This can be particularly important for people entering a second marriage, people who have children from previous relationships, or couples who have also entered into a prenuptial agreement.
If marriage is approaching, it can be helpful to consider your prenuptial agreement and estate plan together rather than treating them as completely separate planning decisions.
What Happens to Your Estate Plan During or After Divorce?
Divorce is another particularly important time to review your documents.
Pennsylvania law addresses some of these consequences automatically, but relying solely on those statutory rules can leave important decisions unresolved.
For example, Pennsylvania law generally makes provisions in a will benefiting a spouse ineffective after divorce. The law can also apply during a pending divorce when specific statutory conditions are met. There are exceptions, including when the will demonstrates that a provision was intended to survive the divorce.
The same issue can extend beyond your will.
If you named your spouse as your financial power of attorney, Pennsylvania law generally revokes that designation when either spouse files an action for divorce, unless the document indicates that the appointment was intended to continue.
Pennsylvania applies a similar rule when a spouse has been designated as a health care agent. Filing an action for divorce generally revokes that designation unless the advance health care directive clearly provides otherwise.
Certain beneficiary designations can also be affected by divorce or qualifying pending divorce proceedings under Pennsylvania law.
Why You Should Still Review Your Documents
Automatic revocation does not necessarily answer the more important question: Who do you want in that role instead?
If your former spouse was your executor, financial agent, health care agent, or beneficiary, removing that person does not automatically create the complete plan you would have chosen yourself.
Reviewing your estate plan during or after divorce allows you to make those decisions deliberately.
Having or Adopting a Child Is Another Important Trigger
A growing family can significantly change your priorities.
Pennsylvania law contains protections for certain children who are born or adopted after a will was created. Under Section 2507, a child who was not provided for because the child was born or adopted after execution of the will may be entitled to a statutory share unless the circumstances show that the omission was intentional.
But relying on the default law is rarely the same as creating a plan tailored to your family.
Parents may want to revisit issues such as:
- How property should pass to their children
- Who should administer an estate
- Who should manage assets intended for minor children
- Whether an existing trust or other planning structure still makes sense
- Who they would want considered to care for minor children if both parents died
This is also a good time to review life insurance, retirement accounts, and other beneficiary designations alongside the will.
Three Core Documents to Review
Your Will
Ask yourself:
- Are the right beneficiaries named?
- Is your chosen executor still the right person?
- Does the plan still make sense for your current family?
- If you have minor children, have you properly addressed your wishes regarding their care and property?
Your Financial Power of Attorney
Ask yourself:
- Is the person named as your agent still someone you trust?
- Is that person still willing and able to serve?
- Have your financial circumstances changed significantly since you signed the document?
Your Health Care Power of Attorney
Ask yourself:
- Is your chosen health care agent still the person you want making decisions?
- Does that person understand your wishes?
- Have your preferences or personal circumstances changed?
You Do Not Need to Be Wealthy to Need an Estate Plan
One of the biggest misconceptions about estate planning is that it is primarily for people with substantial wealth.
- Estate planning is also about decision-making.
- Who should handle your affairs if you cannot?
- Who should make medical decisions?
- Who should receive the property you do own?
- Who should administer your estate?
- What should happen if your family circumstances become complicated?
Someone who owns a modest home, has retirement benefits, maintains a bank account, or simply wants to choose the people responsible for important decisions can have meaningful reasons to create an estate plan.
The value of planning is not measured only by the dollar value of an estate.
Buying a Home or Building a Business Can Change the Picture
Major assets can also make an estate plan worth revisiting.
Buying your first home, acquiring investment property, establishing a business, or substantially increasing your savings can change both what you own and how you would want it handled.
Business owners may have additional questions about ownership interests, succession planning, and how business documents interact with their personal estate plans.
A review can help identify whether your existing documents still work with the assets and responsibilities you have today.
Your Beneficiary Designations Deserve Attention Too
Not every asset passes according to your will.
Pennsylvania law specifically recognizes beneficiary designations for assets such as life insurance and certain retirement or employee benefit arrangements as non-testamentary transfers, transfers that generally operate outside the will.
For that reason, reviewing an estate plan should not necessarily stop with the will.
You may also want to check beneficiary designations associated with assets such as:
- Life insurance
- Retirement accounts
- Annuities
- Certain employee benefits
- Other accounts or arrangements that transfer by beneficiary designation
This is especially important after marriage, divorce, the death of a beneficiary, or a substantial change in your family.
Different state or federal rules can also govern different assets, so evaluate specific beneficiary questions based on the account or benefit involved.
What If You Created an Estate Plan Years Ago and Nothing Major Has Changed?
It’s worth reviewing it.
People change even when their legal status does not.
Perhaps the executor you selected ten years ago is no longer the person you would choose today. Maybe your financial agent has moved away, a child has become an adult, your assets have changed, or your relationship with a beneficiary is different.
You may also discover that an older document no longer coordinates well with beneficiary designations or other parts of your financial life.
An estate plan review does not automatically mean rewriting everything. Sometimes the right answer is that your existing plan still works.
Knowing that is valuable too.
What If You Do Not Have an Estate Plan Yet?
You are not behind simply because you have never created one.
Many people first think seriously about estate planning after a specific milestone: getting married, having a child, buying a home, experiencing a health concern, helping aging parents, or watching someone close to them deal with an unexpected loss.
The important question is not whether you “should have done it already.”
It is whether creating a plan now would give you greater control over decisions that matter to you.
For many people, a basic plan begins with three core questions:
- What should happen to my property after my death?
- Who should handle my financial affairs if I cannot?
- Who should make health care decisions if I cannot speak for myself?
Your answers help determine which documents are appropriate for your circumstances.
What Should You Gather Before Reviewing Your Estate Plan?
You do not need to have every detail figured out before speaking with a Philadelphia estate planning attorney. It can help, however, to gather:
- Your current will and any amendments
- Financial and health care powers of attorney
- Trust documents, if applicable
- A general list of significant assets and real estate
- Current life insurance policies
- Retirement and investment account information
- Existing beneficiary designations
- Prenuptial or postnuptial agreements
- Divorce or property settlement agreements that may affect your planning
- Names of the people currently designated as executors, agents, trustees, guardians, or beneficiaries
- Questions about anything you may want to change
Reviewing these items together can make it easier to identify inconsistencies, outdated decisions, or areas that deserve additional discussion.
When Should You Speak With an Estate Planning Attorney?
You do not need to wait until there is a problem.
Consider seeking legal guidance when you are creating documents for the first time, have experienced an important life change, are unsure whether an old plan still accomplishes what you want, or have questions about how your estate plan interacts with a divorce, prenuptial agreement, children, real estate, or other assets.
For my family law clients in particular, I often see how one legal transition can create consequences in another part of a person’s life. A divorce may resolve the marriage, for example. Still, it can also be an important reminder to revisit who is named in a will, financial power of attorney, health care directive, or beneficiary designation.
A clear plan starts with understanding where things stand today.
Review Your Estate Plan With Cooper Family Law
Your estate plan should reflect the family, relationships, assets, and priorities you have now, not simply the circumstances that existed when your documents were first signed.
Cooper Family Law helps individuals and families in Philadelphia, Delaware, Bucks, Montgomery, and Chester Counties evaluate estate planning needs and prepare wills, powers of attorney, and related documents designed around their circumstances.
If your life has changed, your documents have not been reviewed in years, or you have been meaning to create an estate plan for the first time, schedule a confidential consultation to discuss your next steps.
Family Matters. Experience Counts.
