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How Often Should You Review Your Estate Plan?
Wills & Estates
How Often Should You Review Your Estate Plan?
11 min read
How Often Should You Review Your Estate Plan in Alberta?
Introduction
Most Albertans should complete a brief estate-plan check every year and arrange a more detailed legal review about every three to five years. A major life, financial, health, business, or residency change should trigger a review immediately, even if the documents were signed recently.
There is no automatic expiry date for a valid Alberta will, enduring power of attorney, or personal directive. The problem is not usually that the documents become too old; it is that the people, property, relationships, laws, and assumptions behind them change. A technically valid will can still produce an expensive or unwanted result.
An estate-plan review should cover more than the will. It should examine incapacity documents, beneficiary designations, jointly owned property, corporate and trust arrangements, insurance, tax exposure, digital assets, funeral and donation instructions, and the practical location of records. Updating only one part can create conflicts elsewhere.
What Is Included in an Estate-Plan Review?
A complete review may cover:
the will and any codicils;
the executor and alternate executor appointments;
guardianship wishes for minor children;
trusts for children, vulnerable beneficiaries, or a spouse;
the enduring power of attorney and named attorney;
the personal directive and named agent;
beneficiary designations on RRSPs, RRIFs, TFSAs, pensions, insurance, and other plans;
joint ownership and rights of survivorship;
real estate titles, mortgages, and dower or family-property issues;
private-company shares, partnerships, shareholder agreements, and corporate records;
trusts, loans, guarantees, and family agreements;
foreign and out-of-province assets;
tax cost, liquidity, and insurance;
digital assets and secure access instructions;
funeral, organ-donation, and personal wishes; and
the location of original documents and the current asset inventory.
The review should compare the legal documents with how assets are actually owned. A will cannot control an asset that passes by a valid beneficiary designation, survivorship, contract, or trust arrangement.
A Useful Review Schedule
Complete a brief annual check
Once a year, confirm that the plan still reflects the family and finances. This can be done around tax season, a birthday, or another recurring date. The annual check does not always require a lawyer; it is meant to identify whether anything has changed.
Ask:
Are the executor, attorney, and agent still alive, capable, willing, and appropriate?
Have any beneficiaries died, married, separated, become disabled, or moved?
Have major assets been purchased, sold, transferred, or refinanced?
Are beneficiary designations still correct?
Is the original will secure and accessible?
Are contact details and the asset inventory current?
Has there been a change in family conflict, health, business, or tax residence?
If the answers reveal a material change, arrange a professional review.
Arrange a full review every three to five years
A legal review every three to five years is a practical baseline even where no obvious event has occurred. Laws, tax rules, financial products, family circumstances, and professional recommendations evolve. The lawyer can also identify issues the client may not recognize as legally important.
Complex plans may need more frequent attention. Business owners, blended families, farm families, trustees, people with foreign assets, and families supporting a person with a disability should consider a shorter review cycle.
Review immediately after a major event
Do not wait for the three-to-five-year mark after a significant change. Some events alter legal rights, tax outcomes, ownership, or the practicality of existing appointments immediately.
Life Events That Should Trigger a Review
Marriage or a new adult interdependent relationship
Marriage does not automatically revoke an Alberta will. That rule was abolished under the Wills and Succession Act. An older will can therefore remain valid after marriage while failing to provide appropriately for the new spouse or coordinate with family-property, dower, support, ownership, and tax rules.
A new relationship should prompt review of the will, beneficiary designations, title, insurance, incapacity documents, and any marriage or cohabitation agreement. Blended families need particular care because support for a spouse and preservation of an inheritance for children may require a trust or other structure.
Separation or divorce
Alberta law may treat certain gifts and appointments in favour of a former spouse or adult interdependent partner as revoked when the relationship legally ends, subject to statutory definitions and contrary intentions in the will. It is unsafe to rely on those default rules.
Separation can continue for a long time before a divorce is final, and not every beneficiary designation, joint asset, insurance contract, corporate agreement, or power of attorney changes automatically. Review documents promptly with both family-law and estate-planning advice.
Birth, adoption, or new responsibility for a child
The plan should address guardianship wishes, trusts, trustee selection, ages of distribution, education and support, insurance, and what happens if both parents die. An estate plan signed before a child was born may contain general language, but it should still be reviewed.
Death or incapacity of a named person
If an executor, alternate, attorney, agent, guardian, trustee, or beneficiary dies or loses capacity, the plan may have no workable backup. Even if the document contains an alternate, confirm that the remaining choice is still appropriate.
A beneficiary's disability, addiction, insolvency, or family-law risk
An outright inheritance may affect means-tested benefits, expose assets to creditors, or be difficult for the beneficiary to manage. A properly designed trust may provide protection and oversight, but it should be considered before capacity or death creates urgency.
A serious diagnosis or decline in capacity
Estate documents can be changed only while the maker has the required legal capacity. A diagnosis does not automatically remove capacity, but it makes timely, careful advice and documentation important.
The enduring power of attorney and personal directive should identify suitable decision-makers and provide the authority they will realistically need. Waiting until a crisis may leave the family seeking a court order.
Financial and Property Changes That Require Attention
Buying or selling real estate
A new home, rental property, cottage, farm, or out-of-province property can change probate, tax, dower, insurance, debt, and liquidity planning. Selling an asset specifically gifted in a will may cause the intended beneficiary to receive nothing under that clause.
Title should be reviewed before adding a joint owner. Joint ownership can create tax, creditor, beneficial-ownership, and family-dispute risks.
A major increase or decrease in wealth
A plan designed for a modest estate may not address tax, equalization, trusts, charitable giving, or professional management after a substantial increase. A major loss can make fixed gifts or tax obligations unrealistic and leave too little for the residuary beneficiaries.
Starting, buying, selling, or restructuring a business
Business succession must align the will with corporate records, shareholder or partnership agreements, insurance, debt, signing authority, and tax planning. A corporation continues after a shareholder's death; the estate generally receives the shares, not direct ownership of corporate assets.
Taking on significant debt or guarantees
Mortgages, shareholder loans, lines of credit, and personal guarantees can reduce the net estate or force a sale. The plan should identify liquidity and whether a specific beneficiary is expected to assume secured debt.
Receiving an inheritance or large gift
New wealth may change equalization, tax, family-property, charitable, trust, and insurance planning. Inherited foreign or private-company assets may require specialized advice.
Beneficiary Designations Need Their Own Review
RRSPs, RRIFs, TFSAs, pensions, life insurance, and certain other plans may pass according to a designation in the contract or will. These designations can override the distribution a person expects from reading the will alone.
The tax result and legal role of a designation depend on the plan and recipient. A spouse named as successor holder of a TFSA is treated differently from an ordinary designated beneficiary. RRSP and RRIF tax may be reported by the deceased even where proceeds pass directly to another person, subject to available rollover rules.
Review designations after marriage, separation, divorce, a beneficiary's death, the birth of a child, a change in tax residence, or a change in the overall distribution plan. Obtain written confirmation from the institution and keep it with the estate records.
Do not assume that updating the will updates every designation held by a financial institution. Likewise, changing an account form may not correct inconsistent will language.
Review the Executor, Attorney, and Agent
The best person for a role ten years ago may not be the best person now. Consider:
age, health, and capacity;
willingness to act;
location and ability to travel;
financial skill and organization;
relationship with beneficiaries;
potential conflicts of interest;
understanding of the business or special assets;
ability to make health-care decisions under pressure; and
whether co-decision-makers can cooperate.
An executor manages the estate after death. An attorney under an enduring power of attorney manages financial and legal matters during incapacity. An agent under a personal directive makes specified personal and health-care decisions. These roles can be held by the same person, but they require different abilities.
Ask each proposed decision-maker periodically whether they remain willing. The plan should include capable alternates.
Changes in Location and Law
Moving to another province or country should trigger an immediate review. Wills and powers of attorney may remain formally valid, but local succession, property, family, tax, and recognition rules can affect how they operate. Foreign real estate may require a local will or probate process.
Executors, attorneys, agents, and beneficiaries who move can also create practical and tax issues. A non-resident executor or trustee may affect bonding, administration, banking, trust residence, or withholding obligations.
Legislative and tax changes are another reason for periodic review. A lawyer can identify whether an amendment affects interpretation, tax planning, trust reporting, probate procedure, or beneficiary designations. Not every legal change requires new documents, but the effect should be assessed rather than assumed.
Practical Examples
A will signed before marriage
Jordan's will leaves everything to a sibling. Jordan later marries but does not update it. Because marriage does not automatically revoke an Alberta will, the old document may remain operative, creating support claims and conflict. A review at marriage could have aligned the will, designations, home ownership, and spouse protections.
An executor who moved and became unwell
Mei appointed a close friend as executor twelve years ago. The friend now lives abroad and has serious health problems. Mei's annual check identifies the issue, and she appoints a capable local executor and alternate while she can still make the change.
A designation that conflicts with the will
Paul updates his will to divide the estate equally among three children but forgets that one child remains the sole beneficiary of a large life-insurance policy. A coordinated review reveals that the actual distribution would be very unequal and lets him decide whether that result is intentional.
These examples illustrate common issues only. The legal result depends on the documents, ownership, contracts, and family circumstances.
Common Estate-Plan Review Mistakes
Waiting for the document to “expire”
Estate documents do not generally expire on a set date. They can remain valid while becoming increasingly unsuitable.
Updating the will but nothing else
Designations, title, corporate documents, insurance, powers of attorney, and personal directives may still produce the old plan.
Making handwritten changes to the signed will
Writing on, crossing out, unstapling, or attaching pages to an original will can create validity and interpretation problems. Changes should be made through a properly executed new will or codicil after legal advice.
Relying on divorce or separation defaults
Default statutory rules may not address every asset, designation, appointment, or period of separation. Prompt, coordinated changes are safer.
Forgetting practical access
A current plan is ineffective if no one can find the original will, locate assets, access key records lawfully, or contact the advisers.
Reviewing only after capacity is lost
An attorney cannot simply rewrite the incapable person's will. Review while the maker can understand and approve the changes.
How Long Does a Review Take?
A brief annual check may take less than an hour. A straightforward lawyer review can often be completed over one or two meetings, followed by drafting and signing if changes are needed.
Complex reviews may take several weeks or months where they involve tax modelling, business reorganization, trusts, foreign counsel, family agreements, valuation, or insurance underwriting. Starting early preserves more choices.
Not every review requires replacement documents. Sometimes the best result is written confirmation that the existing plan still works, together with an updated asset inventory and beneficiary-designation records.
What Does an Estate-Plan Review Cost?
The cost depends on whether the lawyer is confirming an existing plan, preparing a new will and incapacity documents, or coordinating tax, business, trust, or cross-border planning. Additional fees may arise for accounting advice, valuations, corporate work, land-title changes, or foreign counsel.
A short periodic review is usually less expensive than correcting an outdated plan through litigation, family claims, tax elections, or court applications after incapacity or death.
When Should You Speak With an Estate Lawyer?
Arrange legal advice promptly when:
it has been more than five years since the last review;
you married, separated, divorced, or entered a new relationship;
a child was born or adopted;
an executor, attorney, agent, trustee, guardian, or beneficiary died or became unsuitable;
a beneficiary has a disability or creditor concern;
you bought, sold, or transferred major property;
your wealth, debt, insurance, or tax situation changed substantially;
you started, restructured, or sold a business;
you moved provinces or acquired foreign assets;
capacity or serious illness is a concern;
beneficiary designations conflict with the will; or
family conflict makes the current plan risky.
How Bridgestone Law Can Help
Bridgestone Law assists individuals and families in Calgary and throughout Alberta with estate-plan reviews, wills, trusts, enduring powers of attorney, personal directives, probate, and estate administration. We can compare existing documents with current family circumstances, asset ownership, beneficiary designations, and planning goals, then recommend only the changes that are actually needed.
A regular review keeps the plan current, practical, and easier for the people who will eventually rely on it.
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