Updating Existing Estate Plan Documents
Life happens and things change. And sometimes you need to update your estate plan documetns accordingly. We get many inquires from people who have existing documents that need changes.
We can easily assist with revisions if our firm initially drafted your Will and/or Trust (and related documents). Otherwise, we do not offer revision services. When we revise existing documents, I take responsibility for the original document's content AND our revisions. This is why we cannot revise documents drafted by another attorney (OR purchased online, from a kit, or even copied from another person's documents).
For Wills, we can use your existing document as a reference when drafting a new Will. For Trusts, it is usually possible to do a Restatement, which creates new documents but allows you to keep the existing Trust name and creation date.
For Health Care Powers of Attorney, Advance Directives Regarding a Natural Death/Living Wills, and Durable General Powers of Attorney - we do not revise these documents even if we drafted them originally. Due to their statutory nature, making new documents is easier, usually less expensive, and provides a final document that will be more successful (as many medical and financial professionals cannot immediately understand a revised/amended document).
Although we’d love to help, if you’re not ready to completely re-do your documents, you worked with an attorney to draft them, and you still live in the same state, consider asking the drafting attorney/their firm for assistance.
Disclaimer: this article was written by Attorney Heather Hazelwood of Hazelwood Law PLLC dba Ampersand Law. This article does not contain legal advice and is not a substitute for obtaining legal counsel. It is offered for general information purposes only.