09/30/2026
Creating an estate plan isn't the finish line.
Keeping it current is.
Think about how much can change in 5, 10 or 15 years:
✅ Your family.
✅ Your assets.
✅ Your business.
✅ Your state of residence.
✅ Your beneficiaries.
✅ Your trustees.
✅ The tax laws.
Yet many families create a will or trust, put it in a drawer... and assume the job is finished.
Rick White shares an example in The Estate Planning Mistakes Manual of an estate plan created in 2007 that hadn't been reviewed for 16 years. By then, the family circumstances, trustee situation and tax environment had changed.
Having an estate plan isn't enough.
You need an estate plan built for the life you have today—not the life you had when you signed it.
When did you last review yours?
Rick's book uses this real-world example to illustrate why ongoing plan maintenance is one of the eight major estate-planning mistakes families should address. Estate Planning Mistakes