Retirement is about enjoying the future you’ve worked hard to build, but it’s also a good time to make sure that future is protected. Estate planning before retirement can help ensure your assets, wishes, and loved ones are taken care of as your circumstances change.
In fact, reaching retirement is a major reason people create an estate plan. According to a Wills & Estate Planning Study, 31% of Americans who have a will said reaching retirement motivated them to create one. Yet only 32% of Americans reported having a will.
A thoughtful Beverly Hills estate planning strategy can help you coordinate your estate goals with retirement and financial planning. It is a natural opportunity to review your will, beneficiaries, life insurance, retirement accounts, and other important parts of your financial plan, so you can move into the next chapter with greater confidence.
Why Review Your Estate Plan Before Retirement?
Retirement can bring significant changes to your financial picture. You may be moving away from employment income and relying more heavily on retirement accounts, investments, Social Security, real estate, business interests, or other sources of income. At the same time, your priorities may shift from accumulating wealth to managing, preserving, and eventually transferring it.
Retirement Can Change Your Financial Picture
As you prepare for retirement, take another look at what you own and how those assets are structured. Your financial picture may now include:
- 401(k)s and other retirement accounts
- IRAs and investment accounts
- Real estate and other property
- Life insurance policies
- Business interests
- Savings and other financial assets
- Trusts or other estate-planning arrangements
The people you want to protect may also have changed. Perhaps your children are now adults, you’ve welcomed grandchildren into the family, or your responsibilities toward other family members have evolved.
These changes can affect how you want your assets managed and distributed.
Your Estate Plan Should Reflect Your Current Goals
An estate plan created years ago may no longer reflect your current wishes. Beneficiaries may have changed, assets may have been acquired or sold, and your retirement priorities may look very different from when you first created your plan.
That’s why estate planning before retirement should involve more than simply checking whether you have a will. It’s an opportunity to review the different pieces of your financial strategy and determine whether they still work together.
For example, you may want to revisit your will and trusts, update beneficiary designations, review your life insurance coverage, consider potential long-term care needs, and make sure your financial and healthcare decision-making arrangements are current.
A comprehensive estate planning checklist can help you identify these areas before retirement rather than discovering gaps later. For those approaching retirement in Beverly Hills, working through these decisions as part of a broader retirement planning strategy can help create greater coordination between your current financial needs and your long-term goals.
1. Review Your Will
A will is one of the most familiar parts of an estate plan in Burbank, but having one isn’t necessarily enough. As you approach retirement, review your will to make sure it still reflects your current wishes and family circumstances.
Make Sure Your Will Reflects Your Current Wishes
Take time to review who you have named to receive your assets and whether those choices still make sense. Your family may look different than it did when you originally created your will. Children may have grown up, grandchildren may have been born, or relationships and financial circumstances may have changed.
You should also consider whether your will addresses the assets you currently own. Major changes in your financial situation can be a good reason to revisit your estate-planning documents.
A regular review can help you identify outdated provisions and determine whether your current wishes are clearly reflected in your plan. Your will is an important part of estate planning before retirement, but it should be considered alongside your other financial and estate-planning arrangements.
2. Review Your Trusts
If you already have a trust, retirement can be a good time to review how it fits into your broader estate plan. If you don’t have one, that doesn’t automatically mean you need one. The appropriate approach depends on your individual circumstances, assets, and goals.
Determine Whether Your Trust Still Fits Your Goals
Review any existing trusts to make sure the terms, beneficiaries, and assets connected to the trust continue to reflect your intentions.
Changes in your financial situation can also affect your planning priorities. You may have accumulated additional investments, purchased property, sold a business, or made other significant financial changes since your trust was established.
This is why retirement estate planning should look at your estate as a whole rather than treating individual documents separately. A trust that once made sense may need to be reviewed as your family and financial circumstances evolve.
For individuals and families considering Beverly Hills estate planning, reviewing existing trusts can be an important part of preparing for the transition into retirement.
3. Check Your Beneficiary Designations
Your estate plan may include more than a will or trust. Many financial accounts and insurance policies have their own beneficiary designations, making these designations an important part of your overall planning.
Don’t Let Old Beneficiary Designations Override Your Current Plan
As you approach retirement, review the beneficiaries listed on:
- Life insurance policies
- 401(k)s and other retirement accounts
- IRAs
- Investment accounts
- Other accounts that allow beneficiary designations
These designations should be reviewed alongside your broader estate planning strategy. A beneficiary designation that was appropriate years ago may no longer reflect your current wishes.
This is particularly important when your family or financial circumstances have changed. Marriage, divorce, the death of a beneficiary, the birth of a grandchild, or significant changes in your assets can all be reasons to revisit your designations.
Keeping these details current can help ensure your beneficiary choices remain aligned with the broader goals of your estate planning checklist.
4. Review Your Life Insurance Coverage
Life insurance can continue to play an important role as you approach retirement, but your reasons for having coverage may change over time. The policy you purchased when you were raising a family may serve a different purpose once your children are independent and your financial priorities have shifted.
Determine Whether Your Life Insurance Still Meets Your Needs
Review your existing coverage and consider how it fits into your current financial and estate-planning goals. Depending on your circumstances, life insurance may provide financial protection for loved ones or form part of a broader wealth-transfer strategy.
Legacy Partners Insurance offers several life insurance options, including:
- Life Insurance
- Universal Life Insurance
- Indexed / Guaranteed Universal Life Insurance
- Last Expense / Funeral Insurance
The right type and amount of coverage can depend on factors such as your financial situation, family needs, existing assets, and long-term objectives.
For someone preparing for retirement, reviewing life insurance alongside retirement planning and estate planning can provide a more complete view of how your financial resources may support your family’s future.
5. Plan for Potential Incapacity
Estate planning isn’t only about what happens after you die. It should also address what happens if you’re alive but unable to make important financial or healthcare decisions for yourself.
Prepare for More Than What Happens After Death
As part of your estate planning before retirement, review the arrangements that determine who can make decisions on your behalf if you become unable to do so.
This may include reviewing:
- Powers of attorney
- Healthcare-related directives
- Financial decision-making arrangements
- People you’ve designated to act on your behalf
The goal is to make your wishes and decision-making arrangements clear before a crisis occurs. Having these conversations and documents reviewed in advance can help your family understand how you want important decisions handled.
Incorporating incapacity planning into your broader estate plan can help ensure that your retirement strategy considers both your long-term financial goals and the possibility that your circumstances could change unexpectedly.
6. Review Your Retirement Accounts
Retirement accounts often represent a significant portion of the assets you’ve accumulated over your working years. As retirement approaches, these accounts should be reviewed as part of your overall Sherman Oaks estate planning strategy rather than considered only as a source of retirement income.
Review Your IRAs, 401(k)s, and Other Retirement Assets
Start by taking inventory of your retirement accounts and reviewing how they fit into your current financial and estate-planning goals. Consider:
- Which retirement accounts you currently own
- Who is listed as the beneficiary
- Whether your beneficiaries still reflect your wishes
- How these accounts fit into your retirement income strategy
- Whether changes in your financial circumstances require a broader review
Retirement accounts can have their own beneficiary designations, so keeping this information current is an important part of estate planning before retirement.
Coordinate Retirement Planning With Estate Planning
Your retirement assets don’t exist separately from the rest of your financial picture. How you use your retirement accounts during retirement can affect the assets you ultimately leave to your beneficiaries.
This is where retirement planning and estate planning can work together. Reviewing your accounts before retirement can help you consider both your need for income during retirement and your longer-term goals for your family.
For families preparing for retirement in Beverly Hills, coordinating these areas can be an important component of Beverly Hills estate planning.
7. Review Your Real Estate and Other Major Assets
Real estate and other significant assets can become an important part of your estate as you approach retirement. Whether you own a primary residence, investment property, or other substantial assets, make sure your estate plan accounts for what you currently own.
Take Inventory of Your Assets
An updated inventory can give you a clearer picture of what your family may eventually need to manage or inherit. Review assets such as:
- Your primary residence
- Investment or rental properties
- Business interests
- Investment accounts
- Valuable personal property
- Other significant assets
Consider whether these assets are properly addressed within your current estate-planning strategy.
Consider How Assets Will Be Transferred
It’s also worth considering what you want to happen to major assets in the future. Your wishes may involve leaving property to family members, dividing assets among beneficiaries, or incorporating certain assets into a trust or another planning arrangement.
These decisions can become more important as you move from accumulating wealth toward preserving and transferring it. Reviewing your assets as part of estate planning before retirement can help you identify areas that may need additional attention.
8. Revisit Your Estate Plan After Major Life Changes
Your estate plan should change when your life changes. Retirement itself can be a major transition, but it may not be the only event that warrants a review.
Common Reasons to Update Your Estate Plan
Consider reviewing your plan after significant events such as:
- Marriage or divorce
- Birth or adoption of a child
- Death of a beneficiary
- Changes in family relationships
- Major changes in income or wealth
- Buying or selling significant property
- Starting or selling a business
- Changes in your retirement plans
Even when there hasn’t been a major event, periodically reviewing your documents can help you determine whether they still reflect your current goals.
Don’t Assume an Older Plan Still Works
An estate plan that worked well earlier in your life may not be appropriate once you reach retirement. Your assets, family responsibilities, income sources, and priorities may all be different.
A regular review gives you an opportunity to identify outdated information and make adjustments where appropriate. For individuals searching for estate planning in Beverly Hills, CA, this process can also provide an opportunity to coordinate estate decisions with broader financial and retirement objectives.
9. Consider How Your Estate Plan Fits Into Your Financial Plan
Estate planning is most effective when it is considered alongside the other pieces of your financial life. As retirement approaches, decisions about investments, insurance, retirement income, taxes, and wealth transfer can all influence one another.
Look at the Bigger Financial Picture
Rather than reviewing each area independently, consider how your:
- Estate plan
- Retirement accounts
- Life insurance
- Investments
- Real estate
- Retirement income
- Family and legacy goals
work together.
This broader approach can help you identify potential gaps and make sure your financial decisions support your long-term objectives.
10. Create a Regular Estate Planning Review Schedule
Your estate plan should not be something you create once and forget. As you move through retirement and your financial circumstances evolve, periodic reviews can help ensure your plan continues to reflect your wishes.
Review Your Plan When Your Circumstances Change
Certain events should prompt an estate plan review, including:
- Retirement or a major career change
- Marriage or divorce
- Birth of a child or grandchild
- Death of a beneficiary
- Significant changes in your assets
- Buying or selling real estate
- Changes to life insurance coverage
- Starting or selling a business
- Changes in your retirement income strategy
Even without a major life event, periodically reviewing your documents and beneficiary designations can help you identify information that may have become outdated.
Coordinate Your Estate Plan With Your Retirement Strategy
Your estate plan should work alongside your broader financial strategy. As you transition into retirement, you may need to reconsider how your retirement accounts, investments, life insurance, real estate, and other assets fit into your long-term goals.
This is where professional estate planning and financial planning can complement one another. Instead of looking at your estate documents in isolation, you can evaluate how your different financial decisions may affect both your retirement and the people you ultimately want to protect.
Estate Planning Before Retirement Checklist
Before entering retirement, take the time to review the major components of your estate and financial plan.
- Review your will to make sure it reflects your current wishes.
- Review your trusts and confirm that they still align with your goals.
- Check beneficiary designations on retirement accounts, life insurance policies, and other applicable accounts.
- Evaluate your life insurance and determine whether your existing coverage still meets your needs.
- Review powers of attorney and healthcare directives to ensure your decision-making arrangements are current.
- Take inventory of your retirement accounts and consider how they fit into your overall plan.
- Review real estate and other major assets and consider how you want them handled in the future.
- Account for major life changes that may require updates to your estate plan.
- Coordinate estate planning with retirement and financial planning so your strategies work together.
- Schedule regular reviews to keep your plan aligned with changes in your family, finances, and goals.
Checking these areas before retirement can make it easier to identify potential gaps and determine which parts of your plan may need attention.
Plan for Retirement With a Comprehensive Estate Strategy
Retirement planning involves more than determining when you can stop working. It’s also an opportunity to think about how you want your assets managed, how your loved ones may be protected, and what you want your financial legacy to look like.
At Legacy Partners Insurance, our planning services can help individuals and families consider estate planning as part of a broader financial strategy. Our related services include:
Whether you’re preparing for retirement now or reviewing an existing plan, bringing these areas together can help you make more informed decisions about your financial future.
We also serve individuals and families in communities including Burbank, Encino, Glendale, Pasadena, Sherman Oaks, and Fresno.
If retirement is approaching, don’t wait until a major life event forces you to revisit your estate plan. Start reviewing your estate planning strategy today and make sure the arrangements you’ve established continue to reflect the future you want for yourself and your family.
Frequently Asked Questions About Estate Planning Before Retirement
1. Should I update my estate plan before retirement?
Yes. Retirement can bring significant changes to your income, assets, beneficiaries, and financial priorities, making it a useful time to review your existing estate plan.
2. What should I review in my estate plan before retirement?
At a minimum, review your will, trusts, beneficiary designations, life insurance, powers of attorney, healthcare directives, retirement accounts, real estate, and other significant assets.
3. How often should I review my estate plan?
A periodic review can help keep your plan current. You should also consider reviewing it after major life events such as marriage, divorce, the birth of a child, a significant financial change, or the death of a beneficiary.
4. Does life insurance belong in an estate plan?
Life insurance can be an important part of an overall financial and estate-planning strategy. Its role depends on your coverage, financial circumstances, family needs, and long-term goals.
5. Why should I coordinate retirement planning with estate planning?
Retirement accounts and other assets can play an important role in both your retirement income and your eventual estate. Coordinating the two areas can help ensure your financial decisions support both your current needs and long-term goals.
6. Do I need estate planning if I don’t have significant wealth?
Estate planning isn’t limited to people with substantial assets. Your plan can also address who should make decisions on your behalf, who should receive your assets, and how your wishes should be communicated.
7. Where can I get help with estate planning in Beverly Hills, CA?
Legacy Partners Insurance provides estate planning, financial planning, retirement planning, and life insurance services for individuals and families. A professional review can help you evaluate how these areas fit together as you prepare for retirement.
8. What happens if I don’t have an estate plan before retirement?
Without an up-to-date estate plan, your assets and important decisions may not be handled according to your current wishes. Estate planning can help establish who receives your assets and who can make financial or healthcare decisions if you become unable to do so.
9. Should my retirement accounts be included in my estate plan?
Yes. Retirement accounts can represent a significant portion of your assets, so reviewing their beneficiary designations and how they fit into your overall estate strategy is important as you approach retirement.
10. Can estate planning help protect my family’s financial future?
Estate planning can help you organize your assets, clarify your wishes, designate decision-makers, and coordinate areas such as life insurance, retirement accounts, and other financial resources. This can give your family clearer direction and help support your long-term goals.