Choose fiduciaries before choosing documents.
Executor, trustee, guardian, POA agent, healthcare proxy, and backups are often the hardest planning decisions.
An estate plan is only as good as the last time it was reviewed.
Annual review of wills, trusts, POAs, advance directives, beneficiary designations, and trust funding — calibrated to OBBBA, current New Jersey inheritance tax, the NJUTC, and your family's actual life today.
Why Your Estate Plan Needs Regular Review
Creating an estate plan is one of the most important legal decisions you will make. But the work does not end at the signing table. Life changes, families grow, financial situations evolve, and tax laws are revised. An estate plan that was perfectly suited to your circumstances three years ago may no longer reflect your wishes, protect your family, or take advantage of current planning opportunities.
That is why we recommend that every client review their estate plan at least once per year. Most of the failures we see are not dramatic — they are small, quiet gaps that opened up over time: an account that was never retitled, a beneficiary form that was never changed, a named trustee who moved away. The annual review is a structured chance to find those gaps while they are still easy to close, instead of leaving them for your family to discover at the worst possible moment.
Life Changes That Trigger a Review
Certain life events should prompt an immediate estate plan review, even if your annual review is not yet due:
- Marriage or remarriage: Your new spouse may not automatically receive what you intend under your existing plan, particularly if you have children from a prior relationship
- Divorce: New Jersey law automatically revokes certain designations to a former spouse under N.J.S.A. 3B:3-14source, but not all. Retirement accounts governed by federal ERISA law (29 U.S.C. § 1144(a)source) require manual beneficiary changes — as the Supreme Court confirmed in Egelhoff v. Egelhoff, 532 U.S. 141 (2001)source
- Birth or adoption of a child or grandchild: New family members need to be included in your will, trust, and guardian designations
- Death of a beneficiary, executor, or trustee: If someone named in your plan has passed away, you need to designate a replacement
- Significant financial change: A major inheritance, sale of a business, new real estate purchase, or significant increase or decrease in net worth can all change the appropriate estate planning strategy
- Relocation: If you or a named fiduciary moves to another state, your plan should be reviewed for compliance with both states' laws
- Health changes: A diagnosis of a serious illness may necessitate long-term care provisions, special needs trust planning, or Medicaid strategies
- Change in relationship with a fiduciary: If you no longer trust the person you named as executor, trustee, power of attorney agent, or guardian, a change is essential
Tax Law Changes That Affect Your Plan
Tax law is the part of an estate plan most likely to shift underneath it, because the rules can change without you doing anything at all — and a provision that was sound under the old exemption can become unnecessary, or actively counterproductive, under the new one. The last several years offer pointed examples:
- OBBBA — $15M 2026 basic exclusion amount: IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32 explains that OBBBA amended IRC § 2010source to set the federal estate and gift tax basic exclusion amount at $15 million per individual for 2026 ($30 million for married couples using portability), indexed after 2026. This eliminated the TCJA sunset that would have reverted the exemption to approximately $7 million. Plans designed around the anticipated sunset — such as aggressive gifting strategies, credit shelter trusts funded at a lower amount, or provisions triggered by exemption reduction — should be reviewed promptly
- SECURE Act changes to inherited IRAs: The SECURE Act rewrote the required-distribution rules under IRC § 401(a)(9)source, ending the "stretch IRA" for most non-spouse beneficiaries and instead requiring inherited retirement accounts to be fully distributed within ten years. This matters because a trust drafted as a retirement-account beneficiary under the old life-expectancy rules can, under the new timeline, force a decade of accelerated taxable distributions into a trust taxed at the highest brackets — the opposite of what the plan intended. A trust named as IRA or 401(k) beneficiary should be re-read against the current rules to confirm it still distributes the way you want
- NJ estate tax elimination (2018): New Jersey eliminated its state estate tax effective January 1, 2018. Plans that included specific provisions to minimize NJ estate tax, such as credit shelter trusts funded at the former NJ exemption amount, may now be unnecessarily complex or counterproductive
- NJ inheritance tax: Unlike the estate tax, New Jersey's inheritance tax (N.J.S.A. 54:34-1source et seq.) remains in effect. Tax rates and class exemptions should be reviewed against your current beneficiary structure — particularly if you have added non-exempt beneficiaries (siblings, friends, unmarried partners) since your plan was created
What Our Annual Review Includes
When you participate in Simon Law Group's annual review service, we conduct a thorough examination of your entire estate plan:
- Review of your will, trust, powers of attorney, and healthcare directive for accuracy and current effectiveness
- Verification that all beneficiary designations on retirement accounts, life insurance, and financial accounts are current and consistent with your plan
- Confirmation that your trust is properly funded and that any newly acquired assets have been titled correctly
- Assessment of whether changes in federal or NJ tax law create planning opportunities or risks
- Discussion of any life changes that have occurred since your last review
- Recommendations for amendments or additional documents, with clear fee quotes for any required work
The thread running through every one of these steps is the same: a signed document is a snapshot of your intent on the day you signed it, and the review confirms that snapshot still matches your life. Two checks tend to matter most. The first is trust funding — a revocable living trust under the New Jersey Uniform Trust Code, N.J.S.A. 3B:31-1source et seq., only avoids probate for the assets actually retitled into it, so a house bought or an account opened since the last review can quietly fall outside the plan unless it is funded in. The second is the chain of beneficiary designations and fiduciary appointments, which live outside the will entirely and answer to no one but the form on file. Catching a gap in either while you are alive and able to fix it is the entire value of the review.
The Cost of Not Reviewing
The consequences of an outdated estate plan range from inconvenient to catastrophic. Common problems that arise from plans that have not been reviewed include:
- An ex-spouse receiving life insurance proceeds or retirement account assets because beneficiary designations were never updated — for retirement accounts governed by federal ERISA law, the beneficiary named on the account form generally controls who is paid, and a will ordinarily cannot override it, which is why the designation itself has to be changed
- A named guardian who is no longer willing or able to care for your children
- Assets passing through probate because trust funding was never completed for newly acquired property
- Tax provisions that are no longer beneficial or that create unintended complications under the 2026 $15M federal basic exclusion amount
- A power of attorney agent who has become estranged, incapacitated, or deceased
- An advance directive that does not reflect your current healthcare preferences
Frequently asked questions
▸ How often should I review my estate plan?
Annual review is the baseline. Major life events should trigger an immediate review regardless of when the last one occurred: marriage, divorce, birth or adoption of a child, death of a spouse or named fiduciary, significant financial change (sale of a business, large inheritance, retirement), relocation across state lines, a serious health diagnosis, or material amendments to federal or New Jersey tax law. A plan that was correct three years ago may no longer reflect your family, your finances, or the current legal framework.
▸ What happens if I never update my estate plan?
An outdated estate plan is often worse than no plan at all because it locks in old assumptions. Common failure modes include: a life insurance or retirement-account beneficiary designation that still names a former spouse and pays out to them; a named guardian who has died, moved, or is no longer willing; real estate or accounts acquired after the trust was created that were never titled in the trust and therefore go through probate; trustee or executor designations naming people who are no longer the right choice; and tax provisions drafted under a prior federal or state exemption that no longer apply. The cost of an annual review is ordinarily a small fraction of the cost of correcting any of these problems after death, when the person whose intent mattered is no longer available to clarify it.
▸ Does the OBBBA affect my estate plan?
IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32 explains that OBBBA amended IRC § 2010(c)(3) to increase the federal estate and gift tax basic exclusion amount to $15 million per individual for calendar year 2026 ($30 million for married couples using portability), eliminating the prior TCJA sunset that would have cut the exemption roughly in half on January 1, 2026. Plans that anticipated the TCJA sunset — for example, credit-shelter trust provisions funded at the older lower exemption amount, or aggressive lifetime-gifting strategies designed to use exemption before the sunset — should be reviewed to determine whether those provisions remain optimal under current federal law. New Jersey eliminated its state-level estate tax in 2018; the New Jersey inheritance tax under N.J.S.A. 54:34-1source remains in effect for Class C, D, and E beneficiaries.
▸ Can Simon Law Group review a plan created by another firm?
We review plans drafted by other attorneys regularly. Bring your existing wills, trusts, powers of attorney, advance healthcare directives, beneficiary-designation forms, and trust funding records to the review meeting. We assess whether the documents are current under New Jersey law, internally consistent, properly executed (witnesses, notarization, self-proving affidavits), aligned with your current goals, and funded correctly. If updates are needed, we provide written fee quotes before any work begins — no surprises.
▸ What does an annual review cost at Simon Law Group?
The annual review fee is flat-rate, quoted in writing before scheduling. The review itself includes a comprehensive examination of your existing plan (wills, trusts, POA, advance directive), confirmation that all beneficiary designations on retirement, life insurance, POD/TOD accounts are current and consistent, a check on trust funding status (whether new assets have been retitled into the trust), and a briefing on any federal or New Jersey law changes affecting your plan. If amendments, codicils, or additional documents are needed, we provide a clear fee quote before doing the work. See plans and packages for the fee schedule.
▸ What if a named fiduciary has died or is no longer willing?
When a named executor, trustee, guardian, healthcare proxy, or financial agent dies, becomes incapacitated, or simply communicates they are no longer willing to serve, the documents naming them need to be updated promptly. The amendment is straightforward: a codicil to the will or a restated will, a trust amendment naming a successor trustee, a new POA and a new advance healthcare directive. Where a guardian for minor children has changed, the will amendment should also document the reasons for the new selection in case the choice is later challenged.
Related estate planning resources
- Estate Planning Overview
- Packages & Pricing
- Our Process & Timeline
- NJ Inheritance & Estate Taxes
- Federal Estate Tax Portability
Schedule your annual review
Whether you created your estate plan with Simon Law Group or with another firm, we will review the documents and tell you whether they still do what you want them to do. Call (800) 709-1131 or use the contact form to schedule.
Reviewed by Britt J. Simon, Esq., Managing Partner, Simon Law Group, LLC — May 2026
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