As we all prep for our summer travel plans and vacations, one of the typical last minute stressors to many individuals and families is whether their estate plan is up-to-date. This often causes substantial panic and distress to some estate planning clients or others whom have no estate plan in place at all. To those of whom that are experiencing such stress, here are my best initial recommendations to you: Take a deep breath and relax.
While we all are going to die at some point, the likelihood of you dying on your dream vacation is a substantially low statistical probability. For example…
- You have a 1 in 11,000,000 chance of dying in a plane crash.1
- You have 1 in 5,000 chance of dying in a car accident on an annual basis, including while on vacation.2
- And generally most all other causes of death while on vacation have substantially similar low or much lower probabilities.
And, for those with more adventure seeking summer travel plans, death while hiking Mount Kilimanjaro is 0.03%,3 bungee jumping is 1 in 500,000,4 and sky diving is also 1 in 500,000.5 (If statistical evidence is not enough, my wife, Ashley Case, has done all three of these on our vacations and she is still alive and well, also writing for Forbes.com.)
We certainly cannot always rely on statistics and this author is not outright dismissing your concerns and fears. Thus, to provide some real recommendations to alleviate the worries, to start, peruse through your current estate plan to check your currently nominated Trustees, Executors or Personal Representatives, Agents, Guardians and Conservators, etc., in addition to your Beneficiaries. Depending on how long you have before you leave on your trip and your attorney’s availability (yes, contrary to popular belief, estate planning attorneys also go on vacation from time to time), these potentially minor changes are something that could perhaps get updated before you depart. Requesting for major updates to your estate plan on a moments notice before you leave in a few days or few weeks is not realistic. (Beware of practitioners claiming otherwise, as often times it means they’re not putting in the level of thorough analysis that goes into updating one’s estate plan.)
The next recommendation is to reach out to your estate planning attorney to schedule a review session of your current documents or to set up an estate plan if one is not already in place. For those that already have their estate plan in place and are reaching out to their same estate planning attorney, you can email a list of the potential changes you would like to make in advance, as it might help expedite the process. Regardless, it is advisable to be patient in getting the meeting scheduled with the attorney, as while it might seem like the summer months would cause a lull in estate planning work, the substantial increase in post-pandemic travel has caused the workload for many estate planning attorneys to equally increase over the past few years.
If you’re not able to get in contact with your estate planning attorney in time before your trip, for whatever the reason, it is highly recommended that you do not attempt to amend or alter your estate plan on your own. This type of panic over highly unlikely events will often lead to potential estate planning nightmares . There are so many legal formalities and requirements that go into updating an estate plan through an amendment or codicil, as well as potential tax ramifications on altering certain types of estate planning vehicles. Instead of playing the incredibly dangerous game of DIY estate planning, get the meeting scheduled with the estate planning attorney for when you get back, hopefully relaxed from your vacation with a clear mind.
Preparing for your summer travel can be stressful enough. Adding in additional unlikely fears about an untimely demise during your time in vacation paradise should not be one of them. Allow your estate plan to get done or update properly, which should give you more peace of mind than attempting to rush the process. This is true even if you so happen to be participating in the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain this summer, which has only has 16 deaths since 1910.6
Read the full article here
