Estate Planning After Retirement: What to Review

Retirement changes many parts of life. Your income may change, you may spend more time traveling, and you may start thinking differently about your home, savings, and family. It is also a good time to look at your estate plan.

An estate plan you created years ago may no longer match your current life. Your family may have changed. Your assets may be different. You may also have new ideas about who should receive your property or who should help if you cannot make decisions for yourself.

Reviewing your estate plan after retirement does not mean you need to start over. In many cases, you simply need to make sure your current documents and account information still reflect what you want.

Article Summary

1. Review Your Will After Retirement
2. Make Sure Your Personal Representative Is Still the Right Choice
3. Review Your Trust and How It Is Funded
4. Check Beneficiary Designations
5. Review Your Powers of Attorney
6. Look at How Your Property Is Owned
7. Consider How Your Plan May Affect Probate
8. When to Review Your Estate Plan Again
9. When It Helps to Speak With an Estate Planning Attorney

1. Review Your Will After Retirement

Your will is a good place to begin your estate planning review. If you created your will many years ago, read it again. Look at the people you named and the instructions you included.

Ask yourself a few basic questions:

• Do I still want my property distributed this way?
• Are all of the people named in the will still part of my life?
• Has someone named in the will passed away?
• Have there been marriages or divorces in the family?
• Have grandchildren been born?
• Have my assets changed?

You may discover that your will still reflects your wishes. If so, that can provide peace of mind. However, major changes in your life or family may mean it is time to update the document.

It is also important to remember that a will is only one part of an estate plan. Some assets can transfer outside of a will, so reviewing the will alone may not be enough.

2. Make Sure Your Personal Representative Is Still the Right Choice

Your will may nominate someone to serve as your personal representative.

This person can have an important job after your death. The personal representative may need to manage estate property, address valid debts, complete probate paperwork, keep records, and distribute assets.

Think about the person you selected. Is that person still willing to serve? Are they organized and dependable? Do you still trust them to handle your estate?

Someone who seemed like the right choice 15 years ago may not be the best choice today. Age can also matter. If you named someone who is now elderly or dealing with other responsibilities, you may want to consider another person.

3. Review Your Trust and How It Is Funded

If you have a trust, retirement is a good time to review it along with your other estate planning documents.

First, make sure the trust still reflects your wishes. Then look at which assets are actually connected to the trust. Creating a trust does not automatically mean every asset you own is controlled by it. How assets are titled and whether they were properly placed into the trust can make a difference.

This is an important part of understanding how wills, trusts, and probate work together.

You may have bought property, opened accounts, or made other financial changes since the trust was created. Those changes are good reasons to review how your estate plan is set up.

4. Check Beneficiary Designations

Some of the most important parts of an estate plan are not found in your will. Certain accounts allow you to name a beneficiary who will receive the asset after your death.

These may include:

• Retirement accounts
• Life insurance policies
• Certain bank accounts
• Investment accounts

Beneficiary designations are easy to forget because you may have completed the paperwork many years ago. For example, someone may still have a former spouse or another outdated person listed on an old account.

Retirement is a good time to make a list of accounts with beneficiary designations and confirm that each one still reflects your wishes. Do not assume your will automatically changes these designations. Your entire estate plan should work together.

5. Review Your Powers of Attorney

Estate planning is not only about what happens after death. A good estate plan should also address what happens if you are alive but cannot manage certain decisions yourself.

That is why powers of attorney are important. You may have documents that allow another person to help with financial matters or healthcare decisions under certain circumstances.

Review whom you selected for these roles. Ask yourself:

• Do I still trust this person?
• Is this person available to help?
• Does this person understand what I would want?
• Have our circumstances changed since I signed the document?

Retirement may last for decades. Planning for possible changes in your ability to manage financial or healthcare matters can be just as important as deciding who eventually receives your property.

6. Look at How Your Property Is Owned

Retirement is also a good time to create a simple list of what you own.

This may include:

• Your home
• Bank accounts
• Retirement accounts
• Investments
• Vehicles
• Life insurance
• Other real estate
• Valuable personal property

Then look at how major assets are owned. Ownership can affect what happens after death. Some property may transfer directly to another person, while other property may become part of a probate estate.

This is one reason families are sometimes surprised by probate. They may assume everything automatically passes according to a will. Learning about non-probate assets can help you understand how different parts of an estate may transfer.

7. Consider How Your Plan May Affect Probate

Many people begin thinking more seriously about probate after retirement. Probate is the legal process used to settle certain estates after someone passes away. It may involve gathering assets, handling valid debts, completing court paperwork, and distributing property.

Having a will does not automatically avoid probate. However, the way an estate is planned can affect which assets may need to go through the process.

This does not mean everyone needs to build an estate plan around avoiding probate at all costs. The goal should be to create a plan that makes sense for your property, family, and wishes.

If avoiding unnecessary probate is important to you, review how to avoid probate in Wisconsin and discuss which options make sense for your situation.

8. Do Not Forget About Important Personal Information

Estate planning documents are important, but your family may also need practical information.

Consider keeping an organized record of important details, such as:

• Where estate planning documents are stored
• Names of banks and financial companies
• Insurance information
• Contact information for important professionals
• Property records
• Basic account information

You do not need to give everyone access to private financial information.

However, at least one trusted person should know where important records can be found if they are needed. A well-written estate plan is much more useful when your family can actually locate it.

9. When Should You Review Your Estate Plan Again?

Retirement should not be the last time you look at your estate plan. It is helpful to review your plan from time to time and after major life changes.

Consider another review after:

• A marriage or divorce
• The death of a spouse or beneficiary
• The birth of a child or grandchild
• A major change in your finances
• Buying or selling real estate
• Moving to another state
• A major change in your health
• A change in your relationship with your personal representative or another person named in your plan

You do not necessarily need to make changes every time you review your documents.

10. When It Helps to Speak With an Estate Planning Attorney

Retirement is a good time to make sure your will, trust, powers of attorney, beneficiary designations, and property ownership all work together.

At Fricker Law Office, we help families in Milwaukee, Wauwatosa, Brookfield, and nearby communities understand their estate planning options. We can review an existing plan, explain how different documents work together, and help you determine whether changes make sense for your situation.

If you have recently retired or have not reviewed your estate plan in several years, we’re here to help. Reach out to one of our Milwaukee estate planning lawyers today to speak with our team and get clear, straightforward guidance for your situation.