Review your estate plan at least every year or two as a personal check, and revisit it immediately after a major life, family, financial, property, or legal change. Professional guidance is not uniform: a 2025 American Bar Association Family Advocate article calls an annual or biennial review prudent, while an ABA Young Lawyers Division guide recommends revisiting a plan every three to five years or after a major event. A U.S. Department of State document identifies five years as a review point. These are planning recommendations, not a nationwide statutory deadline.
A useful review covers much more than the will. Confirm that your trust, powers of attorney, health-care instructions, beneficiary designations, asset ownership, and named decision-makers still match your wishes. A will generally does not control retirement accounts, life insurance, and other assets that pass by beneficiary designation.
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How often should you review an estate plan?
Use a two-part schedule:
- Calendar check: Set a recurring reminder for every year or every other year. This is a cautious, practical habit that helps you notice changes while they are still easy to address.
- Trigger-based review: Contact an estate-planning lawyer promptly after a significant change in your family, finances, property, residence, health, business interests, insurance, employment benefits, or applicable law.
If nothing has changed, a full professional review can be scheduled on a longer cycle. Published recommendations range from three to five years. The ABA Young Lawyers Division guide uses that range, and a U.S. Department of State document from its 2009–2017 archive period lists five years. The 2025 ABA Family Advocate recommendation is more frequent: every year or two. The difference reflects caution and practice preferences, not competing legal rules.
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|---|---|---|
| Every year or two | A brief personal check, with professional advice when something changed | People with young children, complex families, changing assets, business interests, or a strong preference for frequent confirmation |
| Every three to five years | A periodic professional review when no major event has occurred | A baseline cycle for a relatively stable family and financial situation |
| Every five years | A longer interval identified in a U.S. Department of State document | A minimum reminder for people whose circumstances have remained stable, not permission to ignore intervening changes |
Whatever interval you choose, do not wait for the next calendar reminder if a trigger occurs. The consequences of marriage, divorce, a death, a move, or a major asset change can depend on state law and the wording of your documents.
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Why there is no single legal deadline
Estate planning is governed largely by state law, and states differ in how marriage, divorce, separation, beneficiary changes, execution formalities, property ownership, and tax rules affect a plan. The sources above provide professional guidance rather than a universal requirement that every person must update documents on a particular date.
A document may remain legally valid while no longer producing the result you want. For example, a will can still be operative even though the person named as executor has died, a child has become an adult, a former spouse remains on a retirement-account form, or a newly purchased home is titled in a way the plan did not anticipate. Review asks whether the plan still fits; it does not automatically mean every document must be redrafted.
Life events that justify an immediate review
These events are prompts to investigate your plan, not automatic proof that a document is invalid. Ask a lawyer licensed in the relevant state what changed legally and which documents, accounts, or deeds require action.
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A new marriage may change intended beneficiaries, fiduciary choices, property rights, and the way you want children from an earlier relationship protected. Divorce or remarriage can create conflicts between a former spouse, a current spouse, children, and other beneficiaries. Separation can involve court orders, support obligations, property restrictions, or rules that affect beneficiary changes. Before changing assets or designations during a separation, obtain advice from a family-law or estate-planning attorney familiar with your jurisdiction.
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Birth, adoption, or a child reaching adulthood
Add a newborn or adopted child to the plan and confirm who would serve as guardian if both parents could not act. Review provisions for children as they become adults, enter college, develop a disability, receive an inheritance, marry, or acquire significant assets. A plan that once treated all children identically may need a different structure if one child has changed needs.
Death, incapacity, or changed circumstances of a named person
Review the plan when an executor, trustee, guardian, financial agent, health-care agent, successor, or beneficiary dies, becomes incapacitated, moves away, develops a conflict, or no longer has a relationship you trust. Confirm successor appointments as well as primary appointments. A person who was suitable years ago may no longer be willing, able, or geographically available to serve.
Inheritance or a substantial financial change
Revisit the plan after receiving an inheritance, selling a business, acquiring valuable property, taking on significant debt, receiving a large settlement, or experiencing a major change in income or net worth. New assets may need different ownership, beneficiary instructions, insurance, or trust treatment. The value and nature of your estate can affect the advice you receive, but no plan guarantees a particular tax result.
Moving to another state or buying property elsewhere
Ask for a review after moving, establishing a second residence, or buying real estate in another state. A document prepared under one state’s law may still be recognized elsewhere, but execution rules, property law, community-property concepts, homestead provisions, and probate procedures can differ. Out-of-state real estate may require a deed or other ownership review in the state where the property sits.
Relevant tax or other legal changes
Changes in federal or state tax law, probate rules, trust law, powers-of-attorney statutes, digital-asset rules, or health-care directives can make an old plan less effective. Your lawyer should identify which changes actually affect your facts rather than assuming that every legislative change requires new documents.
Changes in charitable, insurance, or employment-benefit plans
Review the plan if your charitable intentions change, you obtain or cancel life insurance, your employer changes retirement or stock benefits, or you move to a job with different beneficiary forms. Charitable gifts, insurance proceeds, retirement accounts, and employer benefits may be controlled by separate forms rather than by the will.
What the review should cover
Bring the complete plan together. Looking only at the will can leave important instructions unchanged elsewhere.
| Part of the plan | Questions to ask |
|---|---|
| Will and codicils | Are the beneficiaries, executor, successor executor, guardians, and distribution instructions still correct? Are the signing and witnessing formalities appropriate for the state? |
| Trust documents | Does the trust still serve its purpose? Are trustees and successors suitable? Were intended assets actually transferred or titled to the trust? |
| Durable financial power of attorney | Is the agent and successor agent still trusted and available? Does the document provide the authority needed for current accounts, property, business, and digital finances? |
| Health-care power of attorney or proxy | Are the agent and successor agent current? Do they understand your values and know where the document is kept? |
| Advance directive or living will | Does it reflect your current treatment preferences and comply with the law and accepted forms where you live? |
| Retirement and insurance beneficiary forms | Do primary and contingent beneficiaries match the plan? Have marriage, divorce, death, or a new child changed the intended result? |
| Transfer-on-death and payable-on-death designations | Are account registrations, beneficiaries, and successor beneficiaries accurate? |
| Asset ownership | Who owns each bank account, investment account, business interest, vehicle, and parcel of real estate? Is the ownership consistent with the will or trust? |
| People and logistics | Can your family locate the originals? Are addresses, phone numbers, attorney information, and storage instructions current? |
Asset titling deserves special attention. A trust can contain detailed instructions, but those instructions may not govern an asset that was never transferred or registered as intended. Likewise, changing a will does not update an insurance or retirement-account beneficiary form. Ask the lawyer and the financial institution what form of change is required for each asset.
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A step-by-step review process
- Set the reminder. Choose a recurring date every year or every other year, such as the month you signed the plan. Put the reminder on your calendar and include a note to check for trigger events.
- Gather the originals and current records. Locate the will, codicils, trust instruments, powers of attorney, health-care directives, deeds, account statements, insurance records, business documents, and beneficiary confirmations. Record where the originals are stored and who can access them.
- Make a people list. Write down every executor, trustee, guardian, agent, successor, and beneficiary. Mark deaths, incapacity, changed relationships, moves, or reluctance to serve. Contact proposed decision-makers to confirm that they are still willing.
- Make an asset and ownership list. Include real estate, accounts, insurance, retirement plans, business interests, valuable personal property, debts, and property in another state. For each item, record the owner, beneficiary designation, joint owner, transfer-on-death registration, and location of the title or account record.
- Compare wishes with legal instructions. Check whether the distribution plan, guardianship choices, charitable gifts, and health-care preferences still express your intentions. Note anything that depends on a trust or on a beneficiary form outside the will.
- Identify state-law questions. Flag a move, marriage, divorce, separation, property purchase, business change, or legal development. Do not assume that a document signed in one state has the same effect in another.
- Schedule the right professional appointment. A stable plan may need only confirmation; a trigger event may require a lawyer’s review before any form is changed. Choose counsel licensed in the state whose law governs the relevant people, property, or documents.
- Update forms and ownership separately. If the advice calls for a new will or trust, complete the required signing formalities. Then update financial-institution beneficiary forms, deeds, account registrations, and insurance records; one update does not automatically complete the others.
- Verify completion. Request confirmation from each institution, check that new deeds or titles were recorded where required, and replace outdated copies. Tell the people who may need to act where the final documents are located.
Review is not the same as redrafting
The first question is whether the plan still fits your wishes, people, assets, and applicable law. If the answer is yes, the professional may recommend keeping the documents and recording the review date. If something has changed, the remedy could be a beneficiary-form update, a new deed, a short amendment, a new power of attorney, or a complete restatement. The required signing, witnessing, notarization, and recording steps depend on the document and state.
Do not mark up an original will by hand, attach informal pages, or rely on a phone note as a substitute for execution formalities. Those actions can create uncertainty or conflict with the formal document. Ask the drafting lawyer before destroying an old original; revocation and replacement procedures can matter.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Common mistakes that make a review incomplete
- Checking only the will: Retirement, insurance, and transfer-on-death assets may pass under separate designations.
- Ignoring contingent beneficiaries: A primary beneficiary may die or become unable to inherit, leaving the contingent designation to control.
- Failing to fund a trust: A trust document does not by itself transfer every asset into the trust.
- Leaving outdated fiduciaries: An unavailable executor, trustee, guardian, or agent can force a court process or an unwanted appointment.
- Assuming divorce automatically fixes everything: The effect of divorce and separation varies by state, document, account, and timing.
- Overlooking property in another state: A second state may apply different property, deed, or probate rules.
- Changing a beneficiary during a dispute without advice: Separation, support duties, court orders, and marital-property rules may restrict or complicate changes.
- Keeping originals inaccessible: A plan cannot guide decision-makers if no one knows where the signed documents are stored.
- Treating a review as a guarantee: Reviewing documents does not guarantee probate avoidance, tax savings, or a specific distribution outcome.
How to choose help for a review
Look for an estate-planning attorney licensed in the state relevant to your residence and property. Ask in advance whether the appointment will include the entire plan rather than only the will.
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- Does the attorney regularly handle estate planning under your state’s current law?
- Will the review include trusts, powers of attorney, health-care documents, beneficiary designations, and asset titling?
- Will you receive an explanation of which changes require a new signing, notarization, recording, or financial-institution form?
- Can the attorney identify conflicts involving marriage, divorce, separation, blended families, a disabled beneficiary, business ownership, or out-of-state property?
- What documents and account records should you bring, and how will final originals be stored?
An organizer workbook or checklist can help you collect account numbers, documents, contacts, and questions before the appointment. It is an organizational aid, not legal advice and not a substitute for reviewing the plan with a qualified professional.
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What a sensible schedule looks like
For many households, the practical schedule is a short personal check every year or two, a professional review about every three to five years when circumstances are stable, and an additional review whenever a trigger event occurs. Someone with a simple, settled situation may use the longer end of that range; someone with a blended family, minor children, a trust, a business, property in multiple states, or changing wealth may prefer the shorter end.
Keep a dated record of what you checked, which accounts supplied beneficiary confirmations, and what your lawyer advised. That record helps you distinguish a genuine update from a routine confirmation and gives your family a starting point for the next review.
Bottom line
Review your estate plan every year or two as a practical habit, but treat major life, family, financial, property, and legal changes as reasons to act immediately. Examine the will, trusts, powers of attorney, health-care instructions, beneficiary forms, asset ownership, and decision-makers together. Because the legal effect of a change depends on state law and individual facts, have a state-licensed estate-planning attorney determine whether the right response is no change, a form update, a new deed, an amendment, or a complete rewrite.
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