It’s Time To Spring Clean Your Estate Plan

It’s spring cleaning season. The holiday decorations are down. Tax documents are arriving. For a brief stretch of time, the calendar looks manageable.

That space between winter chaos and summer chaos? That’s your opportunity.

So I asked the Trust & Will Financial Advisor Panel:

What does a true “spring cleaning” of an estate plan look like — and what should families review before the year gets busy again?

The answer wasn’t dramatic. It was simple: realign what you already have. Spring gives you a chance to pause and make sure your plan still matches your reality.

Start With the People Who Would Step In

When the panel talks about reviewing a plan, they begin with one question:

If something happened tomorrow, who would step in?

For families with children, that means guardians.

Charles Thomas III, CFP®, Founder of Intrepid Eagle Finance makes this a consistent part of his client conversations: “In my first quarter meeting I have with clients, we always take a look at their guardian and any backup guardians. “Sometimes that’s 30 seconds and sometimes that’s 30 minutes.”” Sometimes nothing has changed. Sometimes everything has.

Al Faber, CFP®, Founder of DIWY Financial Planning encourages families to think beyond the document itself. He often asks clients: “There are folks you want to be the guardian of your children, but who’s going to pick them up from school if you’re in a car accident? And oftentimes, it’s not the same person.”

Long-term guardianship and immediate emergency logistics aren’t always handled by the same individual. A seasonal review helps ensure both plans are intentional.

Make Sure the Structure Matches the Plan

Once the right people are in place, look at the mechanics.

Bob Chitrathorn, CFP®, CPFA®, Co-Founder & CFO of Simplified Wealth Management, frequently sees plans that are thoughtfully drafted, but misaligned in practice. Beneficiary designations may not match intentions. Assets may not be titled correctly within a trust.

Retirement accounts and life insurance policies are paid according to the beneficiary forms on file — even if your will or trust says something different.

Alan Gorlick, CEO of Gorlick Financial Strategies, sees these gaps come up most often when clients are already reviewing their accounts. During required minimum distribution discussions or tax preparation, those conversations naturally prompt them to “review all their beneficiaries.”

When the financial picture is in front of you, alignment becomes easier. No overhaul required. Just confirmation that everything points where it should.

The Travel Test

One surprisingly effective prompt for reviewing an estate plan isn’t a life event.

It’s a plane ticket.

When families are preparing for travel, Matthew Ricks, CFP, founder of Haystack Financial Planning, shifts the conversation from logistics to authority. He asks: “If you go to Italy and you get sick, what’s your plan? Who’s making medical decisions for you if you can’t? And is that person also on the trip with you? If you both go on a safari in Africa and something happens and you’re both unable to make those decisions, that’s a big problem for your medical care.”

Travel forces practical thinking. You’re already planning for delays, emergencies, and the unexpected. The question becomes: if something happened while you were away, would the right person have the legal authority to step in?

That’s the lesson.

When you’re preparing for a trip, you’re thinking about Plan B. Your estate plan is your contingency plan. Before you step on a plane, it’s worth asking whether it’s as ready as your passport.

Conversation Starters for the Season

Whether you're reviewing your own plan or prompting a client check-in, here are a few ways to begin:

• “Has anything changed in the last year ? New family members, job changes, moves, or losses?”

• “Do the people named in your plan still know they're named? And do they know what that means?”

• “If something happened while you were traveling this summer, who would make decisions? And do they have what they need to do that?”

• “Where are your important documents, and does someone you trust know how to access them?”

Before the Year Speeds Up

Spring offers space.

Before camps, vacations, and full schedules take over, there’s a moment to look at what you’ve already built.

You don’t need to rewrite everything. You just need to make sure it still fits.

Open the plan. Dust off the details. Refresh what matters.

Estate planning evolves as your life does. A seasonal reset helps ensure it keeps up.

Interested in partnering with Trust & Will to enhance your own clients’ estate planning needs? Learn more about how you can join over 20,000 financial advisors and firms who are delivering peace of mind to their clients by offering a comprehensive estate planning solution. Sign up for your free advisor account today.

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