Today it’s increasingly common as families grow and change to relocate geographically once or even several times over the course of a lifetime.
Jobs, marriage, divorce, grandchildren, retirement, health issues and many other factors can result in moves that present potential estate planning issues.
Why does a move matter?
You may be confused at this point about why your city or state should impact your estate plan.
After all, you likely spent time and money working to construct your existing plan and the thought of having to go back to the drawing board certainly isn’t appealing. So why can a move lead to trouble?
Estate planning laws are made on the state level, not federal. As a result there are 50 different approaches to things such as health directives, wills, trusts and a variety of other matters.
Don’t worry
At this point you may think that the burden of overhauling your existing estate plan might negate any reasons to relocate, after all, who wants to go through that again, right? The good news is that your existing plan (assuming there is one) doesn’t need to be scrapped entirely. Many states do things similarly enough to avoid starting over from square one. Also, even if certain documents do need to be drafted from scratch, you’ve already done the hard work of thinking through the issues of estate planning and know how you want to handle them. Now all you need is to take care of the technicalities.
Minnesota Wills
More good news for those worried about the effectiveness of a will after relocating. Most states have specific laws that were passed to explain that a will that has been validly prepared in one state will remain valid after moving to another.
Though the will is likely going to be considered valid, there may still be reasons to meet with an estate planning attorney to discuss possible issues. For example, your current will might reference certain specific state laws or statutes, something that can lead to unnecessary confusion in your new location.
Minnesota Property rights
Another issue with wills that can be important in some cases concerns state-specific property laws. Though Minnesota is an equitable division state, 10 states (Arizona, California, New Mexico, Nevada, Idaho, Washington, Texas, Wisconsin, Louisiana and Alaska) are what are known as community property states. In these states, spouses own together anything they acquire while married. If you move to a community property state, your spouse might treat your marital property as if it has been acquired. While this might be fine in most cases, you may have intended other uses for your property that need to be specifically addressed given the change in property laws.
Executors
An interesting area of many wills that can sometimes run into trouble involves executors. Executors act as your personal representative when paying bills, gathering property and distributing assets of your estate to beneficiaries. Selecting an executor who you trust is obviously important given the work they will be responsible for and you don’t want your chosen executor to be denied given the requirements of your new location. A good example of how state laws can throw a wrench into otherwise good plans is in Florida where the law says that executors must be related to a person by blood or marriage or be a Florida resident. That means a Minnesotan who names his best buddy executor will be denied his choice unless he takes steps to comply with the Florida law.
Medical matters
This is one area that definitely requires some attention following a move. Though all states allow for some kind of advanced medical planning, each goes about it in very different ways. It’s not guaranteed that your existing healthcare directive, living will or healthcare power of attorney will be effective in your new state. Even if it is, chances are doctors in the new state won’t be familiar with the out-of-state documents, something that might lead to confusion or misunderstandings. To avoid this, follow the rules of your new state and redraft forms that fulfill local requirements.
Though it may be confusing, creating an effective estate plan does not have to be an overly complicated process. An experienced Minnesota estate planning lawyer can help walk you through the process of establishing or updating a will or trust.
For more information on estate planning in Minnesota, along with a variety of other topics, contact Joseph M. Flanders of Flanders Law Firm, a Dakota County Minnesota probate lawyer, at (612) 424-0398.
Source: “State-to-state estate planning creates issues,” by Scott Halvorsen, published at TheSpectrum.com.
