Even if you put a solid customized estate plan in place, it can turn out to be worthless for the people you love if it’s not regularly updated. Estate planning is not a one-and-done type of deal—your plan should continuously evolve along with your life circumstances and other changing conditions, such as your assets and the law.

The pandemic has caused Americans to change their behavior in a variety of ways, and one of the most positive of these changes is related to estate planning. For the first time since the study’s inception, Caring.com’s 2021 Wills and Estate Planning Study found that young adults are now more likely to have an estate plan than middle-aged adults.

With COVID-19 still part of our everyday lives, your 2021 holiday season may not feature the big family get-togethers of years past, but you’ll still likely be visiting with loved ones in some fashion. The holidays are always a good time to bring up estate planning given the ongoing pandemic.

If you use Facebook to share, track, and report on important life events, you know that it can provide an intimate snapshot of your life. It can also serve as a key part of your legacy – one you’ll likely want to preserve and protect following your death. With this in mind, as with any other digital asset you own, you should include your Facebook profile as part of your estate plan.

It’s not as if we don’t understand that we will all die (or become incapacitated) one day, but within our current reality, that “one day” has become an ever more real possibility. And one way to feel more in control over what’s happening out there is to make sure we all have our legal affairs in order. That way, if “one day” happens sooner than later, our families aren’t left with a big mess to clean up while they are grieving.

When all is ideal in a family, the bond between grandparent and child is a special one. Maybe you’ve even heard that grandparenting is the grand reward for parenting. But what happens when the grandparent becomes the parent? Or when parents divorce, or one parent dies and a grandparents’ visitation rights are taken away?

To make sure your furry friend is taken care of when you become incapacitated or upon your death, you can leave assets for their care and custody. The best way to leave your faithful companion assets is to set up a pet trust.

Dealing with the financial stressors of caring for an aging loved one can affect your ability to provide them with the care and compassion they need. Failing to manage these stressors correctly can put the security of your own financial future at risk. To mitigate these risks, consider these tips to help you make informed decisions about how to protect your future retirement plans while adequately caring for your loved ones.

Summer is the preferred time of year for many families to facilitate a move. While you likely won’t need to have an entirely new estate plan prepared for you when moving to another state, you should have your existing plan reviewed by an estate planning lawyer who is familiar with your new state’s laws.

As parents, it’s normal to experience anxiety as your child becomes an adult and spreads their wings. While you can’t totally prevent your child from an unforeseen illness or injury, by helping your young adult children put these legal documents in place, you can rest assured that if your child ever does need your help, you’ll have the legal authority to provide it.

What happens if you don’t plan? What will happen to your children? Who will make your medical decisions?

With COVID-19 still raging, your 2020 holiday season may not feature the big family get-togethers of years past, but you’ll still likely be visiting with loved ones in some fashion, whether via video chat or in smaller groups. And though the holidays are always a good time to bring up estate planning, given the ongoing pandemic, talking about these issues is particularly urgent this time around.

Investing in life insurance is a foundational part of estate planning. However, when naming your policy’s beneficiaries, there are a number of mistakes you can make that could lead to potentially dire consequences for the very people you’re trying to protect and support.

Every adult does need SOME estate planning. A will is always a good idea because it says who gets and who is in charge of distributing what you have. However, if the default law would have given your assets to the same people you would choose and authority to the person you would name anyway, then an online will would probably do nothing valuable for you at all.

Right now, huge numbers of people are coming face to face with their own mortality and realizing that they need to plan for the worst case scenario. This goes not just for those of us in the “senior” category, but for all of us, no matter our age. We are facing the reality of our mortality, and many of us are doing it courageously by taking this as an opportunity to learn what we need to do for the people we love.