My clients are, in many cases, small business owners, entrepreneurs and risk takers. They are often resilient and adaptable – they have to be.
But, from an estate planning perspective…Why am I writing about resilience?
An estate plan also needs resilience. A plan can be disrupted from within, by changes such as marriage, divorce, and death. A plan can be disrupted from outside, by changes in tax regulations and the economy in general.
For example- A sudden disruption of your retirement financial planning can impact an estate plan; an unfavorable tax regulation can impact the decisions you considered for establishing a trust or funding a non- profit foundation. A good estate plan anticipates changes.
Resilience is a pro- active concept. It is too late for a company to decide to become resilient, for example, if there is a sudden breach of its data security. Resilience must a planned into the company structure. Just as in an estate plan – resilience incorporates certain strategies to plan for the ‘what ifs’ of life.
In a short 'brief' titled: The resilient organization…as good as it gets …(www.strategyand.pwc.com – a strategic consulting firm) “This forward-looking and self-correcting type of organization anticipates changes routinely and addresses them proactively. When it does hit a bump in the road — as all companies do — the resilient organization distinguishes itself in its response, which is immediate, thorough, and constructive.”
In previous articles I cautioned that an estate plan is not a legal document to be set on “auto-pilot.” Estate Planning is not a “set-it-and-forget it” structure.
Competent and consistent reviews of your estate plan make it resilient to the forces that can impact it and disrupt your goals.
If it has been a few years since you looked at your estate plan documents, now may be the time to take them out and review them with an eye to resilience.
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