Tag: Estate Planning

What is a Marital Trust?

The common name for a trust that benefits the trust creator’s spouse. A sub-trust is a type of trust that is “created under” another Trust (or a “trust within a trust”).

Who Typically Uses a Marital Trust?

• Blended families.
• High net worth families (i.e., estate and generation-skipping transfer taxes).
• Families with assets to be kept within the family (e.g., family business).

A Marital Trust is useful for someone who has children from a previous relationship, worries about someone influencing their spouse to disinherit their beneficiaries, or is wealthy enough to worry about the estate and generation-skipping transfer taxes.

How Does a Marital Trust Work?

They receive a deceased spouse’s assets for the benefit of the surviving spouse. They generally protect assets from creditors while preserving the deceased spouse’s wishes for how their assets will be distributed and used, including at the surviving spouse’s death. When properly structured for tax planning purposes, they can preserve the deceased spouse’s generation-skipping transfer tax exemption amount without jeopardizing the unlimited marital deduction.

5 Key Features of the wealth.com Marital Trust

There are many ways to design a Marital Trust. If you want your spouse’s inheritance to qualify for a benefit called the “unlimited marital deduction” (i.e., passing an unlimited amount of property at your death to your spouse completely free of estate tax and without using your estate tax exemption), the Tax Code has stringent requirements for the design of this Trust. The Trust must qualify as a “qualified terminable interest property” (or QTIP) Trust. The wealth.com Marital Trust is this type of Trust.

1. Only your spouse can be the beneficiary of the Marital Trust.
2. The Trustee must distribute any “income” generated inside the Marital Trust (e.g., rent if the Marital Trust owns a rental unit) at least once a year, but can do so more frequently if desired.
3. The Trustee can make distributions for your spouse’s health, education, maintenance, or support. If the distribution is for any other reason, an independent trustee (who cannot be your spouse) should be appointed to provide checks and balances.
4. You can choose whether your spouse may serve as trustee. If you are concerned about your spouse serving as trustee (e.g., because your spouse will be unable to manage the inherited assets or you would like checks and balances on your spouse’s ability to spend the inheritance), you will be able to prohibit your spouse from serving as the trustee and appoint someone else as the trustee.
5. You can always change your mind about including the Marital Trust. This flexibility is built into the wealth.com platform for maximum personalization as your life circumstances change.

Download A Printable Version of this Marital Trust Guide

*Disclaimer: wealth.com is not a law firm and is not practicing law. That said, our platform is maintained with care by attorneys who used to practice at the top trust & estate law firms in the U.S. so you can be sure each legal document created with Wealth.com is of the highest quality and is legally valid and optimized for its state, covering all 50 of the United States and Washington D.C.

How This Crucial Aspect of Estate Planning Works

A good estate plan allows you to understand what happens to your assets when you pass away.

Generally speaking, there are three factors that can impact what happens to your assets at death:

1. How your asset is owned.
2. Your estate planning documents.
3. Whether or not you have designated beneficiaries.

It is not commonly understood that there are certain assets, such as a 401k, with beneficiary distribution rules that can override what is outlined in a Will or Trust.

This means that understanding the totality of various beneficiary designations is crucial to your estate plan functioning as you intend.

If that seems daunting, you’re not wrong. Trying to consolidate and manage everything that requires beneficiary designation manually can be tricky, especially as your life circumstances change over time. Fortunately, the wealth.com platform makes all of this easier to manage.

More on that in a bit — first we further explain how beneficiary designations function within optimized estate planning.

Beneficiary Designations

Many types of assets allow for a formal “beneficiary designation,” which directs where that asset will go upon your death regardless of the terms of a Will or Trust. Common examples of such assets include retirement accounts and life insurance policies. .

A closely related cousin of the beneficiary designation is a “pay on death” (POD) or “transfer on death” (TOD) designation. The same idea applies: if you pass away, your designation will bypass your Will or your Trust. Some states allow vehicles, personal objects, and real estate to pass through TOD, but the documentation must be carefully prepared to meet the legal requirements. Bank and brokerage accounts, closely-held stock and other securities may also pass by POD or TOD depending on the bank or custodian that maintains the account for you.

Typically, beneficiary designations are made through the institution where the asset is held (a custodian or administrator). Once a beneficiary designation has been made through the institution, it is important to keep track of who you designated as beneficiary for each asset so it aligns with and does not contradict how you want asset distribution to go in your estate planning documents.

Not all assets are eligible to have a designated, POD or TOD beneficiary. For example, there is currently no cryptocurrency exchange or investment platform that will allow you to designate a beneficiary for your crypto assets. It turns out a Will or Trust is one of the best ways to make sure your crypto will go where you want them to at your death.

Type of Ownership

Your assets can be owned in different ways. You can own them jointly with others and the titling carries implications for the designation upon death, or through an entity like a trust or corporation.

Certain ownership types, like “With Right of Survivorship,” “Joint Tenancy” or “Tenancy by the Entirety,” legally indicate that at one of the joint owner’s death, the other surviving joint owner(s) will automatically inherit the asset. In that case, the last survivor takes the entire asset and will be able to pass the asset to their beneficiaries through their Will or Trust. These forms of titling are especially common when you purchase real property with someone else.

The automatic transfer on death processes supersede any beneficiary designation or terms in your Will or Trust.

If you own an asset through an entity or arrangement governed by an agreement, the agreement may specify what your rights and restrictions are upon death. For example, you may own real property through an LLC.

The operating agreement for the LLC may contain provisions restricting your ability to transfer your LLC interests to your own beneficiaries upon your death, or give a right of first refusal to the other LLC members to purchase your interests.

If post-death rights are not spelled out, those LLC interests would likely default into your estate and pass to your beneficiaries through your Will or Trust.

Finally, many assets do not transfer to someone else automatically upon your death, as outlined in the two categories above.

These assets typically pass pursuant to your Will or Trust.

Conclusion

These three methods of asset distribution can work together as part of your overall estate plan to dictate where your assets will go upon your death.

However, understanding which assets have beneficiary designations and whether how you have titled the asset affects the default rights upon your death can be difficult because they are often disaggregated.

This is where the wealth.com platform comes in: our Asset Aggregation and Ownership Balance Sheet tools help record how you own your assets and what their various beneficiary designations are all in one place.

This information at the asset by asset level can be seamlessly paired with your estate planning documents to give you an understanding of how your assets will be distributed and with whom they will end up after your death.

Wealth.com helps you create and maintain a cohesive estate plan — providing the peace of mind that comes from knowing the friction your heirs will experience is minimized and your estate will be administered correctly when the time comes.

Note: Recording or updating beneficiary designations in the wealth.com platform does not alter your beneficiary designations; instead, we make recording all of your externally designated beneficiaries simple which helps maintain updated records and aids in the estate administration process.

Financial Power of Attorney Explained

So much of estate planning is thinking through how you want things handled after you die, before you start actually making a documented plan. The idea of a financial power of attorney (FPoA) flips that a bit, because it’s about appointing someone to handle your affairs in case you become incapacitated and can’t make your own decisions. The process seems complex, but we’ll simplify it so you can make sense of the basics you need to know to include this important element in your estate plan.

In a nutshell, a financial power of attorney is a document in which you appoint a trusted person to act on your behalf to make financial decisions. In establishing a FPoA, you hand over the legal reins to another person to conduct financial transactions, sign documents, or make other legal decisions as if they were you. This might happen for only a limited period of time (during a serious illness or after an accident, for example), or it can take effect immediately upon signing and last up to your end of life. Once your FPoA is completed, your trusted person, the agent, sometimes called an attorney-in-fact or fiduciary, can be responsible for managing your financial affairs. You will need to use a second document, called an Advance Health Care Directive (sometimes known as health care proxy or health care power of attorney), to designate who should handle all of your medical decisions. There are several types of FPoA, so consider the specific needs of your estate before selecting one.

Durable Power of Attorney

The type of FPoA most commonly used in estate planning is a durable power of attorney. “Durable” indicates that your agent has your permission to act on your behalf even though you are incapacitated or disabled. In other words, the FPoA is effective until you either revoke the document or have passed away.

You can spell out your agent’s powers, responsibilities and restrictions in the FPoA. The powers vary from state to state but usually include the ability to:

• Sell or manage property and real estate
• Sign legal documents and checks
• Manage personal and business-related financial accounts
• Pay medical bills (but not make healthcare decisions)
• File taxes and settle claims on your behalf

Hire professional assistance, such as a lawyer or advisor

Non-Durable Financial Power of Attorney

When an FPoA is not “durable,” your agent’s powers end when you become incapacitated or disabled. In other words, you want to supervise your agent’s use of the FPoA powers. This can be a good option for transactions that are not driven by estate planning needs. For example, you might grant your advisor a non-durable FPoA to conduct time-sensitive trades on your behalf.

In addition, you may be comfortable allowing your agent to change your estate plan or the rights of your beneficiaries; because these are such sensitive powers, in most states, you must affirmatively grant each estate planning power.

Why Include a Durable Power of Attorney in Your Estate Plan?

A complete estate plan should provide not only for death, but incapacity and unavailability. Putting a FPoA in place allows someone to continue managing your financial affairs if you cannot sign important documents yourself in case of emergency, a routine surgery, or even travel abroad.

Keep in mind that to complete your FPoA, it must be signed in accordance with your specific state’s requirements, which might mean signing before a notary public or witness(es).

The wealth.com platform makes it straightforward to get your Financial Power of Attorney drafted and securely stored in our Vault, and provides state-specific guidance on how to fill out and sign your FPoA.

Get this guide to Financial Power of Attorney as a printable PDF

What’s the Difference and Which One Is Right for Me?

TL/DR: In simple terms, a Will is a legal instruction to the court about what should happen to what you own after you have passed away. A Trust is a contract you make with someone whom you trust about what you own, regardless of whether you have passed away. There are many types of Trusts, but the Revocable Trust (or Living Trust) is most commonly used as a substitute for a Will. The Revocable Trust may offer you some advantages that a Will doesn’t, as this article will explain.

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In climactic movie scenes and music videos when a family gathers to hear how the dead person’s fortune will be split up, it’s always the deceased’s Will being read out loud for the big reveal. In real life, however, a Will doesn’t get read out loud; instead, the executor sends a copy to all known beneficiaries.

Even without a dramatic reading, you might still have concerns about keeping your last wishes private. A Will becomes a publicly available document on the probate court’s docket. Probate is often how the press learns the details of a celebrity’s assets and who the heirs are after the celebrity has died.

If maintaining your privacy is important to you, consider making a Trust – and not a Will – the centerpiece of your estate plan.

A Revocable Trust (or Living Trust)* can be a great alternative for many reasons, beyond privacy. These fall into four main categories:

1. Avoiding the court process at death
2. Keeping your wishes private
3. Planning for your incapacity
4. Learning a new set of words

Note that just because most Americans have a Will* and not a Trust does not mean that you should have a Will. Depending on your situation and wishes, a Revocable Trust may be the best option for you.

If, after we dig deeper into each of the differences, you’re still not sure, take our quiz here.

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*1 The rest of this article may refer to this type of Trust as simply “Trust.” A Revocable Trust (or Living Trust) is not to be confused with an Irrevocable Trust. Learn more about this topic here.

*2 A lot more people have a will (60% of the people we surveyed in our estate-planning research who have an estate plan) vs. a trust (38% have a living or revocable trust, and just 19% have an irrevocable trust).

Avoiding the Court Process at Death

The main reason people choose a Trust is to simplify the court process that happens at death, which is called “probate.” If you die with a Will that distributes your assets (or without an estate plan at all), a probate judge will oversee how your assets will be distributed.

This process can be difficult and expensive and take a long time. If one or more factors indicate that probate will be more onerous for your estate, you should consider putting in place a Trust to avoid probate. These factors are:

(a) You live in a state that tends to have a complicated or expensive probate process.

(b) You own real estate (or tangible objects of significant value) that is located in a state other than your home state.

(c) You own assets that are complex and may require more active court supervision, like stock that is not publicly traded.

Unpacking each of these factors:

(A) Some states charge probate or court fees based on the size of your estate (i.e., how much you owned in your name at death). Attorneys may charge up to tens of thousands of dollars to help your executor navigate probate. All those fees are first paid from your assets, so there will be less left to distribute among your loved ones. And even when your assets are not particularly complex, probate in your home state could tie up your assets for up to two years. If you live in a state like this, a revocable trust will allow you to put more control in the hands of your trustee and “bypass” much of the probate process.

(B) If you own real estate or personal property in another state, dying with only a Will means that your executor must start probate processes not only in your home state, but in all the other states as well. By putting the property located in other states in your revocable trust,* your trustee will be able to avoid these “offshoot” probate proceedings.

(C) If you own assets that are a little more complex, such as stock that is not publicly traded, your executor will have to coordinate more closely with the probate court to make sure the stock is properly transferred to the appropriate beneficiaries. This can lengthen the time for probate.

If you anticipate that probate would be costly and time-consuming for your loved ones, a Revocable Trust might be the best option for you.

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*If you place the real estate or personal property in an entity like a limited liability company (LLC), you may also be able to avoid probate, but that analysis must be done by an attorney licensed to practice law in the state where your real estate or personal property is located.

Keeping Your Wishes Private

As part of the probate process, a Will becomes part of the public record. Revocable Trusts typically avoid probate (unless there is an issue like an angry family member who brings a legal claim against your Trust). With a Revocable Trust, your estate plan is more likely to remain private.

Information that will become public if part of your Will include:

(a) Who you consider to be your family members.

(b) Who you want to exclude from receiving your assets or having a trusted role in your estate plan.

(c) Who will receive your assets, and how much of your assets they will receive.

(d) How you would like your last remains to be handled.

If you would prefer to keep these details private, a Revocable Trust might be the best option for you.

When They Become Effective

A Will does not become effective until you die, whereas a Trust is effective immediately on the day you create it. As a result, a trust has legal effect before your death – i.e., while you are alive but either incapacitated or unavailable. If it is important for you that someone take over responsibility for your financial affairs immediately if something were to happen to you, then a Revocable Trust gives you a more powerful vehicle compared to a Will or a financial power of attorney.

Ensuring that “it’s business as usual,” can be especially important if you own a closely-held business and you are expected to be involved in the day-to-day operations or in making high-level decisions by voting your shares. Your succession planning for your business should include transferring your shares into a Trust so that your trustee can step into your shoes if something happens to you.

Learning a New Set of Words

A Trust can be used as an alternative to a Will, but the vocabulary will be different and less familiar to most people, which contributes to the feeling that Trusts are more complicated than Wills. For example, instead of referring to an “executor” or “personal representative,” the trusted individual who will manage your affairs is called a “trustee.”

That being said, if there are factors indicating that you should have a Revocable Trust, you should not let legal terms discourage you from using a Trust as the centerpiece of your estate plan.

What Are Common Misconceptions about What a Trust Can Do For Me That a Will Can’t?

1. If you have a Revocable Trust, you won’t need a Will.

Even if you have a Revocable Trust, you will still need a Will. If you pass away with any assets in your own name, you need a Will to make sure all of those assets go into your Trust, where the Trust will instruct where those assets will go. This type of Will, which accompanies a Revocable Trust, is much shorter than a standalone Will and is commonly known as a “pour-over Will.” This is important because some assets must be owned in your own name while you’re alive, like a retirement account, and you may not get around to putting all your assets in the name of your Trust before you pass away.

You will also need a pour-over Will to name an executor and guardian(s) for your children, if any.

2. As long as I have a Revocable Trust, my loved ones will definitely avoid probate.

A Will must go through probate, whereas a Revocable Trust has the opportunity to avoid probate.

First, you will need to “fund” your Trust, which means transferring as much of your assets as possible into your Revocable Trust. Some courts, like in California, may allow you to avoid a full-blown probate if you show that you intended to fund your trust by signing a general assignment of all your assets into the trust. Other states will instead require that you actually re-title any real estate and change the owner on your bank accounts and other assets.

Lastly, the probate court may become involved to resolve any issues among your beneficiaries or trustees. For example, someone may call into question whether your Will and Trust are not valid.

3. A Revocable Trust will make it harder for someone to sue my estate.

We all fear that someone will be unhappy with the wishes of the decedent or how the estate administration is being handled and bring a lawsuit against the estate. Having a Revocable Trust instead of a Will will not deter a motivated person from suing against your assets at your death.*

Note that a Revocable Trust should not be confused with an Irrevocable Trust, which may offer some level of asset protection. Asset protection means that a creditor (for example, someone to whom the Trust beneficiary owes money for an accident) may not be able to reach the Trust assets because the assets are considered to be separate from the beneficiary and cannot be used to fulfill the beneficiary’s debt.

4. If I anticipate that my estate will owe death taxes, I must have a Revocable Trust.

Tax planning for estate and generation-skipping transfer taxes can be accomplished with either a Will or a Revocable Trust as the centerpiece of your estate plan. You do not need a Revocable Trust just because you may have a death tax issue. The important thing is to make sure your Will or Trust has the proper provisions to meet your tax planning goals. Your Will or Trust must create Trusts after you’ve passed away (a testamentary sub-Trust) that comply with the Tax Code and direct your assets into those sub-Trusts using rules or formulas that will minimize taxes in the long term.

Sub-Trusts are Irrevocable Trusts created at your death and are not to be confused with Revocable Trusts that you create while you are alive as an alternative to writing a Will.

5. If I would like more control over how my assets are used after my death or keeping my assets within my family across generations, I must have a Revocable Trust.

If you would like to maintain some control over how your assets are used or gifted away after your death, you should make sure sub-Trusts (see 4 above) are created after your death. To create this type of sub-Trust, you can use either a Will or a Revocable Trust as the centerpiece of your estate plan.

Sub-Trusts are Irrevocable Trusts created at your death and are not to be confused with Revocable Trusts that you create while you are alive as an alternative to writing a Will.

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*Certain estate planning tools exist to deter someone from suing your assets, including “no contest” or “in terrorem” clauses. These tools can be implemented in a Will or a Trust with the advice of an attorney.

The chart below summarizes the overlap and differences between a Will and a Revocable Trust in most U.S. states.

If you don’t have one yet, ask yourself what’s holding you back.

The words most often associated with estate planning are “important” (53%), “responsible” (52%) and “smart” (42%), according to a survey conducted in the U.S. by WALR in partnership with Wealth in December 2021. Yet only 53% of us have an estate plan. What drives this dichotomy?

Put simply: misperceptions.

Here, we examine the top four reasons people aren’t doing the “important, responsible and smart” work of creating an estate plan — and how to get over those hurdles.

Misperception #1: It’s something to do… later.

The survey findings suggest that when it comes to estate planning, people are prone to procrastination. The No. 1 reason respondents gave for not having an estate plan in place is “I just haven’t gotten around to it” (40%), indicating that they don’t consider it something they need to do right now.

But here’s why you should: While nobody likes to think about dying young, if you’re the parent of small children, it behooves you to prepare for the unthinkable. This is where the Will portion of an estate plan comes in. (For the uninitiated, estate plans often include documents such as a Will or a Trust, power of attorney, a health care directive and beneficiary designations, plus regular reviews and revisions.)

To ensure that your children are cared for in the way you want them to be, you’ll need to name who their guardians would be if both parents die before the kids turn 18. Without those arrangements, the courts will intervene and decide who will raise your children.

Even if you don’t have children, there are other people who deserve protection. Surely, you’ve seen this plot on TV: Someone with money dies, and the war between family members begins. It happens IRL, too. One sibling might think they deserve more than another, or one sibling may think they’re well equipped to handle the finances even though they’re drowning in debt. Without a plan in place, you have no control over who settles these debates.

Misperception #2: Estate planning is complicated.

You’re not alone in thinking this. For respondents to the survey who didn’t have a plan, 23% said a big reason is that, well, they don’t know where to start—20% said they don’t know anything about what estate planning entails. However, many people find it easy to create the major estate planning documents on their own—as long as clear directions are involved. For example, you can draw up a simple, valid Will using software, online or via an app. (Though you may want to crowdsource to find the most reliable options.)

Of course, if you have questions or need documents that are more specific than what’s offered publicly, you should seek personalized advice from an expert.

Misperception #3: I don’t own much, so I don’t need one.

Remember, an estate plan covers both your finances and your assets. Even if you’re just leaving behind property, if you don’t decide who receives it after you’re gone, you’re relinquishing control of what happens to it.

And even if you think you don’t have much money, when you die, your estate consists of not just the money you use day to day but also your life insurance, the equity in your house, the full value of your retirement plans — and everything else you own. That usually amounts to more than you anticipated.

Misperception #4: It’s too depressing to deal with.

Creating an estate plan forces people to confront both mortality and money, two issues that can be upsetting and tough to talk about. Perhaps reframing the situation can help. According to the WALR-Wealth survey, when people who have an estate plan in place were asked to describe the process of setting up a plan, the most common words they used were helpful, simple, empowering and relieving. But respondents who said they set up an estate plan in response to losing a loved one to COVID-19 were more likely to struggle with the process and describe it as confusing, tedious and, yes, depressing. These findings suggest that when estate planning is done before a stressful life event, it’s just not that bad.

Moreover, life is unpredictable. So why not draw up an estate plan? As Chief Growth Officer of Wealth, Tim White, sums it up, “Creating an estate plan is a genuine act of compassion for your loved ones and your greater community, if part of your plan includes charitable donations. There’s real value in the peace of mind that comes from knowing your legacy — whatever that means to you — will be intact after you die.”

Tips on dealing with your digital afterlife in your estate plan

No matter how many fans, followers, or friends we have in this life, at some point we’re all going to die. Here are some of the most common questions people have about what happens to their social media presence after they’re gone.

Q: What happens to my social media accounts when I die?

A: The short answer: Nothing. Not automatically, anyway. Unless you take steps to outline your wishes—or adjust some simple settings on Facebook—your accounts will remain visible and “active.”

Q: How will my loved ones get access to my social media accounts?

A: As with your financial accounts, you’ll want a secure way to provide usernames, passwords, and any multi-factor authentication information to the person you designate. Remember, your Will is not the best place to reveal this information because it can become part of the public record.

There are many options for securely storing your social media access information, but we hope you’ll consider using our bank-level encrypted Vault where you can feel confident filing any important documents you want secure cloud-access to.

Q: How do I designate someone to manage my accounts?

A: Each social media platform has its own policy concerning the accounts of people who have died. They are all likely to evolve over time as this issue becomes more and more relevant. In less than 50 years, Facebook will have more dead members than living ones, so it’s not a problem that can be ignored.

In Facebook’s General Account Settings, under Memorialization settings, you can request to have your Facebook profile permanently deleted after you die or identify a Legacy Contact to look after your account. That person can accept new friend requests, manage tribute posts, delete posts, change the profile picture, and remove you from tags, but they cannot see your messages or add or remove friends.

Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts don’t yet have the same “legacy” option. However, those accounts can be deleted by a direct family member or person you’ve designated as your power of attorney by providing proof of your death.

Q: How do I decide if I want someone to delete or deactivate my social media accounts?

A: Figuring out the future of your Facebook page may seem like a slightly silly discussion topic amid all the other important end-of-life decisions you need to talk about with your family. But as with many things concerning your estate, they are the ones who have to live with the decision. Talk with them to see how they feel. A couple things to think about: Some family members might think of your social posts and photos as akin to a diary and would never consider deleting something so priceless. On the flip side, those helpful birthday reminders and “you have memories” notifications that social sites send could be painful, especially while your loved ones are still grieving. Keeping a social media page but having the legacy contact turn off notifications can be a good compromise.

Choosing a person to care for your minor children

Nominating a Guardian

To make this safeguard official, name guardians through your Will (or in certain states, a separate Nomination of Guardianship). Your designations will have a lot of weight with the judge who would ultimately decide which guardian would be in the best interest of your children. This is especially important if you suspect that your loved ones might disagree over who should become guardian of your children. Asking the person you choose for this role to be a guardian will not alone show the court your intentions.

You can also make your wishes known through a Nomination of Guardianship, which is a simple document that is separate from your Will and acts as a letter to the judge. However, in most states, the judge may give greater weight to your choice if it is included in your Will because you might have signed your Will before two witnesses and/or a notary.

Picking the right person to be your children’s guardian may be hard. You obviously want someone who knows and loves your children, and most people pick someone within the family. But you also may want someone who lives in the same geographical area, so your children’s lives will not be completely uprooted. Or you might prioritize someone who shares your values or who practices the same religion as you. You also want to consider lifestyle and age. Your brother might be your best friend, but if he’s single and travels extensively, is full-time parenting the right fit for him? Same for your own parents, who might not be able to provide the kind of care your child needs as they age.

You also can name backup guardians in case the person you choose as the primary guardian is unable to take on that role.

Whomever you choose, you should talk through the decision with your children’s other parent and with the potential guardians. Be open to the possibility that the other parent may have different wishes and that  someone you trust so much may not feel up for the responsibility.

Other Considerations

Families and plans change over the years. The best friends you named as guardians when your first child was born may no longer be as close to you, may have moved away or gotten divorced. You may now have four kids instead of one, so it would be overwhelming for the guardians to take care of all of them in addition to their own children. Just as with all parts of your estate plan, you should regularly re-evaluate and updated your guardianship nominations. To name new guardians for your children, update your Will or Nomination of Guardianship in accordance with your state’s estate planning laws. Finally, make sure you coordinate your nominations with your children’s other parent to avoid confusion and conflict.