My Address Has Changed…Do I Have To Change My Estate Plan Documents? (Episode #296)

Well, good afternoon Michiganders.

It is Tuesday, February 13th.

And of course, this is Tuesday with Tom, Michigan's only weekly internet show where we answer your questions about estate planning and estate settlement in Michigan. And we don't send you a bill.

As always, I'm your host, Tom Doyle, estate planning attorney, lifelong Michigan resident, and ambassador for All Things Good in this great state of Michigan.

Welcome, welcome to today's program, and happy Fat Tuesday.

Fat Tuesday, French is, Mardi Gras is actually French for Fat Tuesday. And if you didn't know it, that's the practice of the last night before Lent starts of eating rich fatty foods, preparing in Lent when many folks are going to be fasting during the Lenten season. It also means not only one more day before Ash Wednesday, but 47 days before Easter.

Well, last week's episode.

Last week's episode, I suggested that you celebrate National Unclaimed Property Day. That is February 1st, an annual day where we stop to think about do we have any unclaimed property that our state or another state is holding on to for us. And if so, listen to last week's episode.

If that's a concern of yours, I'll provide you with information how you can go about searching for unclaimed property in the state of Michigan, as well as in other states.

Today's topic, though, a question that we are often asked by clients is my address has changed.

Do I have to change my estate planning documents?

But please remember what I'm about to discuss during the program is, as always, for educational purposes only. It is not intended to be legal advice. You need to work with your attorney to determine what is appropriate for you and your estate plan.

So you've moved, and you're asking the question.

You had an estate plan put together, has normally a number of documents.

Many of those documents are going to have your address in them.

I know the documents that we prepare. Normally, your address is going to be in your various powers of attorney, be it your financial powers of attorney, your healthcare powers of attorney, your appointment of funeral representative. Your will is also going to normally reflect what county you were living at the time.

So a question we are frequently asked is, well, my address has changed. Do I have to change my estate plan documents?

Well, again, you've moved. Logic says, well, these documents have my old address in them. I should probably get them updated in order to reflect the new address.

Well, legally though, legally, you don't have to change your documents simply because you've moved and had a new address.

They are still your legal documents.

And if there was ever a question that arose, say you went to a bank with it, and they said, hey, how do we know that you're the same person who used to live at 101 North Main Street, where you now live in a different location, I'm sure you will be able to establish what your previous address was.

So it's not, generally speaking, necessary to update or change or replace documents simply because you have moved.

Now, if you want to, if you really want to do that, then normally there's likely going to be a cost associated with doing that. I mean, you're going to have new documents prepared for you or updated documents prepared for you, and generally law firms are going to charge you to update those documents.

So one of the things that we do for our clients is we have a form. It's called a Notice of Address Change. It's available on our website for our clients. And all you do is you complete that Notice of Address Change form.It's going to reflect your new address. Simply make copies of it and attach it to those documents that have your address in them.

So, for example, if your address is in your financial power of attorney, complete the Notice of Address Change form and simply attach it to that document.

That way, each of the documents had had an old address. You're not crossing addresses off. Let's be very clear on that. We've had clients do that where they come in. They've crossed their old address off. They wrote their new address in.

Do not, do not make changes to your documents by crossing things off and writing them in, because you might be inadvertently rendering those documents useless.

But again, the Notice of Address Changes form that we provide to our clients, you simply complete it, attach it to the documents, and then you'll have that notice on your document reflecting the change in your address.

Now, of course, there might be some other reasons to change your documents when you've moved.

For example, you bought a new house, you've moved someplace else. Well, have you properly fund your new home to your trust? If you had a trust prepared already, you likely had a deed prepared for your old home.

Hopefully, you did relative to putting that home into the trust.

It might have been effective at the time you signed it.

It might have been a ladybird deed.

But normally, the process with real estate is to have your home put into your trust.

If you buy a new home, sell the old one and buy a new home, don't forget to put your new home into your trust.And that's another mistake that we frequently see in our practice where someone has sold an old home, bought a new home, and never remembered to put it in their trust.

They die. Now that home has to go through probate.

So there's a reason to change documents, which is to make sure that your funding is all in place.

Another one, though, is if you're moving to or from a different state.

Obviously, that's not simply a change in address.

Now you're either moving from one state to another or to a different state, from Michigan to a different state, whatever it happens to be.

And all 50 states could have different laws regarding estate plan documents.

And so it is prudent when you move to a different state, whether you're moving from Michigan someplace else or for someplace else to Michigan, you should have your existing documents reviewed, not just because of the address change, but to make sure that they comply with the law in the state that you are now residing in.

Of course, Amanda and I would be honored to have the opportunity to help you protect your loved ones by putting together a state plan that you already have, perhaps amending a current plan, reviewing that plan that you're moving to Michigan.

Maybe you already have documents that were prepared for you elsewhere.

We can review your documents, make recommendations for what needs to be changed, or perhaps assisting you in settling an estate.

Simply head on over to our website. That's at doylelawpc.com. There, you are going to find information at the website on how it is that you can schedule an in-person consultation.

We give you links to our calendars to be able to set those in-person consultations, or to have a virtual consultation, can be by Zoom, by telephone. You'll find complete information there on how to do that.

Also, we have our legal store, again, at doylelawpc.com. You might just need one document updated.
Maybe all you need is a new certificate of trust, or maybe all you need is a new power of attorney for healthcare.

Take a look at the legal store. The concept behind it is for you to submit information through the legal store.We will review that information, determine if we need to have a consultation with you before preparing your requested document. And then once that's done, if we don't need a consultation, then we can prepare and email the documents for you to print off.

Again, all of those things available at Doyle Law PC.

Well, I think that's going to be it for today's show.

As always though, if you have a comment about the program, a topic that you'd like to have me discuss, or questions that you'd like to have answered, please either send me an email, tom at tuesdaywithtom.com, or head on over to the new updated website, tuesdaywithtom.com.

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Well, thanks again for spending some of your Tuesday with us today.

And as always, I hope that you have an awesome day and an awesome week in Michigan.

Stay safe.

Tuesday with Tom has been brought to you by the estate planning attorneys at Doyle Law PC.

To learn how we can help you with your estate plan or with settling a loved one's estate, please call us today at 517-323-7366.