As a financial planner, I often encourage clients to review their estate plans as life changes. My own family had a living trust in place for years, and we had already updated it once. But with our children now adults, loved ones aging and passing away, and our financial life becoming more complex, we decided it was time for a more comprehensive review.
Our previous estate planning attorney had retired, so we worked with someone new. I expected the process to be straightforward.
What I found was that updating a trust can require a significant investment of time. It involves gathering information, reviewing details, making decisions, and following through with institutions and paperwork that may have been neglected for years.
But it can also be a meaningful opportunity to bring order to your financial life, clarify your wishes, and make things easier for the people you love. Even with years of professional experience, the process gave me a fresh perspective on the value of estate planning— and why that investment of time is so valuable.
I Found More Opportunities to Simplify Than I Expected
I consider myself fairly organized. I assumed every account had the correct ownership, beneficiary designations, and paperwork in place. But as we began the review, I found a few opportunities to make our financial life simpler and more coordinated.
Over the years, I had opened additional accounts for specific purposes: a high-yield savings account to hold cash for taxes, accounts we use during regular visits to the United Kingdom, and even accounts I established to better understand our clients’ experiences (if there’s a new financial solution, I’m likely to try it before recommending it to clients.)
The result was a longer list of accounts than I realized.
Some lacked beneficiary designations. Others had been opened as individual accounts when joint ownership or trust ownership might have been more appropriate. None held especially large balances on their own, but together they represented a meaningful amount of money. Had something happened to one or both of us, some could have created unnecessary probate, work, and expense for our heirs.
The review gave us the chance to close accounts we no longer needed, retitle others appropriately, and confirm that beneficiary designations were current. It also gave us a clearer picture of our overall finances. There was real satisfaction in knowing that our financial life was more orderly and easier for someone else to understand.
Estate Planning Can Strengthen Financial Teamwork
Updating our plan gave my husband and I me a reason to set aside time together to review documents, make decisions, and talk through our financial life.
That time was not always easy to find. Like many couples, one spouse often handles more of the financial administration than the other. That was true in our household. Coordinating schedules, reviewing documents, contacting institutions, and completing paperwork took place over many months rather than in one productive weekend.
Still, the process was valuable. As we reviewed my husband’s retirement accounts, we discovered that he had forgotten about an account from a former employer. It was not negligence; I had simply handled much of our financial life for years.
The process helped us recognize the value of making sure both of us could navigate our finances with confidence. Since then, we have started holding a weekly financial meeting. It is a simple habit that’s helping both of us stay informed and involved.
Estate planning is not only about what happens after someone dies. It can also be a useful catalyst for better communication, shared knowledge, and greater confidence during life.
International Assets Require Thoughtful Coordination
Because we have an account in Jersey, a self-governing British Crown Dependency, we encountered an issue I had not anticipated.
Unlike many U.S. accounts, we could not simply name a beneficiary. We learned that the account would need to pass through the local probate process unless we established a separate will under Jersey law.
After researching the costs, timelines, and legal requirements, we decided that creating a separate will was not worthwhile for our family. Probate may take a year and involve legal expenses, but our heirs would have access to other resources during that time.
It was not the answer I expected, but it was the decision that made the most sense for us. For families with assets in more than one country, it is an important reminder that estate planning benefits from thoughtful coordination across legal systems.
A Financial Plan Is a Valuable Starting Point
Our financial plan is maintained in eMoney, our firm’s financial planning portal, just as it is for many of our clients. It was an excellent starting point as we worked through our estate-planning tasks.
We used it to identify trust assets, separate them from non-trust assets, review account ownership and beneficiary designations, and gather supporting information. A financial planning system is an invaluable resource, but the process also reinforced the value of maintaining clear estate-planning records that someone else can locate and understand.
As a co-owner of our financial planning firm with my business partner, Emilie, I also needed to make sure our trust aligned with our business succession agreement. That required new documents for both of us. It was another reminder that estate planning works best when business ownership, partnership agreements, beneficiary designations, and personal estate documents all support one another.
Estate Planning Is Also About Values
Perhaps the most meaningful part of the process was not administrative but personal.
At this stage of life, we hear about friends, colleagues, and clients facing serious health issues far more often than we did twenty years ago. That makes estate planning feel less theoretical. It becomes a way to care for the people you love and provide them with clarity during a difficult time.
One conversation surprised us more than others: What happens if our entire immediate family is gone?
We knew we would want to leave much of our estate to charitable causes while also remembering extended family members. But another question emerged: Which charities? The organizations we support today may not be the organizations doing the most meaningful work thirty years from now.
Rather than trying to predict the future, we decided we would rather empower trusted younger people to make those decisions based on our values. That led us to revisit our donor-advised fund. We discovered that while our children were listed as successor advisors, we also needed contingent successor advisors in the unlikely event that none of us survived.
We were also encouraged to write a Letter of Intent to accompany our estate plan. While not legally binding, it can provide guidance about our values, priorities, and hopes for our family—things legal documents alone cannot fully capture.
Final Thoughts
Updating our trust required a significant investment of time, attention, and coordination. It involved many small decisions, conversations, and follow-up tasks. But each step moved us toward a financial life that was clearer, more organized, and easier for our family to navigate.
The process left us better informed and more prepared. It also reminded me that estate planning is not simply about preparing for the worst. It is about creating clarity, reducing avoidable
complications, and making sure the people and causes you care about are supported in the way you intend.
Even if you already have a trust, a review can be an opportunity to simplify your financial life, confirm that your documents still reflect your wishes, and feel more confident about the legacy you are building.