Happy Sunday!

Today I wanted to talk about how to update your estate plan.

As with most legal matters, it is both pretty straightforward and easy to mess up if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Thankfully you’ll know everything you need to know by the time you are done reading this.

First, the wrong way.

You decide it’s time to update the trustee of your trust. It was John Smith and now you think Jane Smith would be better.

So, you pull out your trust, cross off John and write in Jane.

Done and done.

Right?

Wrong.

There’s no way to confirm that you were the person that made the change, that you made the change of your own free will, or that you had the capacity to understand what you were doing at the time you made the change.

Now, the right way.

You have to draft something called a Trust Amendment to update (amend) your trust.

The amendment outlines the basic information in the Trust, points out that you as Trustee have the ability to amend the trust, and outlines what you want to change.

Once that is drafted, you sign it in front of a notary, put it on top of your trust (it must travel with your trust – it becomes part of the trust itself), and you’re good to go.

Remember, if you’re ever unsure of what to do, just shoot us an email. All clients have unlimited communication with us, free of charge (even after we’re done with your plan).

That’s it!

Have a great week!

Cheers,

Christopher Small
Owner
CMS Law Firm LLC

PS – we love referrals! If you know someone that could use our help, please let them know about us!