Turning 65? Time To Update Your Tampa Estate Plan
Turning 65 is a major milestone and provides an opportunity to assess your life, both in terms of where you’ve been and what might be in store in the future. When addressing practical details that impact your assets, quality of life, and loved ones, put updating your Tampa estate plan at the top of your list.
Your health, financial situation, family relationships, and overall life goals may have changed since you first created these documents. Our Tampa estate planning lawyer explains why it’s important to make updates and where to begin.
Updating Your Tampa Estate Plan Once You Reach 65
Creating an estate plan in Hillsborough County helps protect you and those you love. It clarifies your wishes, details your assets, and explains how matters are handled in years to come. However, it’s not something you create once and never have to think about again.
Even if you have a will, healthcare directives, a trust, or other documents in place, circumstances can change over time and dramatically affect your situation. This is particularly true once you reach 65.
To ensure your Tampa estate plan will continue to meet your needs, ask yourself these questions:
- Has your financial situation or retirement assets changed?
- Have you acquired or sold significant property?
- Is the person designated to handle your affairs still the right choice?
- Do you need to make any changes to beneficiaries, either to reflect changes in the relationship or circumstances in their lives over the years?
- How is your health, and do you think you might eventually require long-term care?
It takes a relatively small amount of time to review these documents, but it could prevent potentially harsh impacts in the future for people over the age of 65, particularly when it comes to Medicaid eligibility and guardianship or other proceedings in the Hillsborough County Probate Court.
Updating Your Tampa Estate Planning Documents
Florida Health Charts reports that more than 200,000 people in Hillsborough County are over 65. If you are among them, important estate planning documents you may want to consider updating include:
- Your will, which lists assets, designates beneficiaries, and outlines how distributions are made.
- A trust, which protects your assets, provides more detailed distributions, and helps with Medicaid eligibility.
- Powers of attorney, which authorize others you trust to make personal or business decisions on your behalf.
- Healthcare advance directives, detailing your wishes regarding emergency treatment and end-of-life care.
In addition, it’s helpful to review beneficiary designations on life insurance policies, payable-on-death bank accounts, and how any property you own is titled.
Consult Our Experienced Tampa Estate Planning Lawyer
There are certain things you need to address once you turn 65, and one of them is your Tampa estate plan. Whether you need updates or to put a will, trust, and other documents in place, Bubley & Bubley, P.A. can help.
We have decades of combined experience providing trusted legal guidance to clients throughout Hillsborough County. Contact our office to request a consultation with our Tampa estate planning lawyer today.
Sources:
myflfamilies.com/medicaid
hillsclerk.com/court-services/probate-guardianship-and-trust
flhealthcharts.gov/ChartsDashboards/rdPage.aspx?rdReport=AgingInFlorida.Overview&rdDataCache=9265779692
