Spring Cleaning Your Estate Plan
By, Polly Bartle Blomquist
Tupperware.
Are you thinking what I’m thinking? Where on earth is the matching lid to this?
Every year I declare, “That’s it. I’m throwing it all away and starting over.” And yet, each year, I close the cabinet door…correction, I attempt to close the cabinet door, something falls, I shove it back in, and slam the door as quickly as possible, ignoring the looming avalanche awaiting the next innocent person who simply wants to store leftovers. Let’s be honest. The next innocent person is usually me.
If you ask my staff, or my family, they’ll tell you I love order. My mind and stress level are directly affected by the cleanliness and organization of my space. Chaos = stress.
Like many of you, I juggle a lot. But that juggling is far easier when I know where to find my purse. Or my air pods. Or the matching lid.
Spring has a way of making us notice the cabinets we’ve been avoiding. We clean out closets. We sort through drawers. We finally tackle that stack of papers that has been quietly judging us from the corner of the desk. But there is one “cabinet” many people avoid opening altogether:
The dreaded estate planning portfolio.
I cannot tell you how often someone comes in and says, “Oh yes, we did our estate plan… I think it was 2009? Or maybe 2011? The kids were little.”
That was three houses ago. Two jobs ago. And before grandchildren. Or retirement. Or the diagnosis. Or the falling out. Or the reconciliation. Life changes. A lot. And yet estate plans tend to sit quietly on a shelf, like mismatched Tupperware, while we hope everything still fits together.
Here are a few questions for you to consider regarding “estate plan spring cleaning”:
- Are the people you named still the right people for the job? (Trustees, Agents, Guardians?)
- Would your chosen trustee or agent have time or even know where to begin?
- Have your assets changed significantly?
- Have the laws changed? (Spoiler alert: they have!)
- Does the way your estate plan deliver assets match what is best for your beneficiaries?
- Have you reviewed your beneficiary designations lately?
An estate plan that once fit beautifully can become ill fitting over time – not because you did anything wrong, but because life and the law kept moving.
I’ve sat with families who were certain everything was handled, until we opened the binder. A beneficiary was wrong. A successor couldn’t serve. A trust wasn’t fully funded. Relationships changed. None of it dramatic at first glance… until it mattered.
The goal of estate planning is not to create a document and never think about it again. The goal is clarity. Order. Peace of mind. A system that works when your family needs it most. Because here’s the truth, your family should not be the one standing in front of the overstuffed Tupperware cabinet, bracing for impact. Spring cleaning your estate plan doesn’t always mean starting over. Sometimes it means tightening a few screws. Updating a trustee. Revising a distribution. Making sure your powers of attorney are current. Confirming that your funding is complete. Sometimes it means discovering that what worked beautifully ten years ago needs a thoughtful refresh today.
If it has been more than three to five years since you reviewed your plan, or if your life has changed in any significant way this is your gentle nudge. Open the cabinet. Let’s make sure the lids still match.
As always, my favorite part of this work is sitting across the table from you, hearing what matters most, and helping you create order in the middle of life’s busyness. There is something deeply calming about knowing everything is where it should be.
Chaos = stress.
Clarity = peace.
If you’re ready for a little estate plan spring cleaning, give us a call. We’d love to see you again. And while you’re at it, throw out the mismatched Tupperware and start over. Here is the set I love…guess what? All of the lids are the same size!! https://amzn.to/3ZWi2ry
