For the past fifteen years, checking your investment account has been gratifying. Markets have climbed with only brief interruptions. Balances have grown. The numbers on the screen have mostly gone up and to the right.

And because of that, many investors haven’t felt compelled to look closely at the details. Why scrutinize something that’s working?

The problem is that the same complacency often extends beyond portfolios and into estate planning. If you haven’t opened your brokerage statement in months, there’s a good chance you haven’t reviewed your estate plan in years (never mind the complacency that comes from the new, higher estate tax exemption levels). And unlike an investment portfolio, which can recover from neglect, an outdated estate plan creates consequences that are permanent and irreversible.

The Documents You Signed Years Ago

Estate planning tends to happen during moments of transition. A marriage. The birth of a child. The sale of a business. The death of a parent. Families engage attorneys, sign documents, and file them away with a sense of completion.

But estate plans are not static. They are living frameworks tied to people, institutions, and laws that change over time.

The individuals you once trusted may no longer be able or willing to serve. Institutions merge, disappear, or fundamentally change how they operate. Assets are acquired, sold, or retitled. Family dynamics evolve in ways no document drafted a decade ago could fully anticipate.

Any one of these shifts can introduce friction. Taken together, they can quietly unravel an otherwise thoughtful plan.

The Trust That Holds Nothing

One of the most common and most painful estate planning failures is the “empty trust.”

A family spends significant time and money creating a sophisticated revocable trust. The language is precise. The tax planning is sound. The distribution provisions reflect careful thought. And then, at death, the family discovers something devastating…the trust owns nothing.

Trusts don’t automatically control assets. Ownership must be affirmatively changed. Bank accounts retitled. Brokerage accounts updated. Real estate deeds revised. Business interests properly assigned. It’s administrative work. It’s tedious. And it’s often left unfinished.

When that happens, the trust becomes an expensive piece of paper. Assets pass through probate instead of following the trust’s terms. Privacy is lost. Costs increase. A well-designed structure collapses because execution never caught up to intent.

The 40% Illusion

Many families are surprised to learn that a will governs, at best, about 40% of their estate.

That’s because most wealth transfers outside of a will. Retirement accounts, life insurance, and annuities pass by beneficiary designation. Jointly owned property transfers by operation of law. Trusts operate according to their own terms. Transfer-on-death and payable-on-death registrations override everything else.

What remains under the will’s control is often the smallest slice.

This creates a dangerous blind spot. Families spend hours debating will provisions while the bulk of their wealth transfers according to beneficiary forms completed years ago and rarely revisited.

We routinely see accounts where an ex-spouse remains listed as beneficiary. Policies where equal distributions conflict with carefully constructed trust plans designed to account for prior gifts. Retirement accounts still tied to old business arrangements that no longer exist.

These aren’t edge cases. They’re the default outcome of treating estate planning as a one-time event rather than an ongoing process.

The Institutional Risk No One Checks

There was a time when naming a corporate trustee felt like choosing permanence. Large institutions with long histories conveyed stability and continuity.

That landscape has changed.

Trust departments have consolidated. Banks have merged or exited the space entirely. Minimum account sizes have increased. Service models have shifted from relationship-driven to centralized and transactional.

If your plan names an institution that no longer exists, successor provisions may activate or courts may need to intervene. Even when the institution still operates, it may no longer be the right fit for your family or your trust.

These issues rarely rise to the level of crisis. But they quietly alter outcomes. And they are far easier to address while you’re alive and able to make decisions than after a plan is already in motion.

What a Real Review Actually Involves

A proper estate plan review doesn’t mean starting over. In many cases, the core structure remains solid. What’s required is a disciplined examination of how the plan functions today.

That review starts with people. Every executor, trustee, guardian, and agent under a power of attorney should still be willing and able to serve. Age, health, geography, and capacity all matter more now than they did when names were first chosen.

It extends to paperwork. Beneficiary designations should align with the intent expressed in your trust and will. Asset titling should reflect what the documents assume. New accounts, properties, and businesses should not exist outside the structure by accident.

It also requires institutional awareness. Corporate trustees, custodians, and insurance carriers should still be appropriate for your needs and scale.

And finally, it must account for reality. Tax laws change. Exemptions shift. Family circumstances evolve. A plan designed in 2010 may still be valid, but rarely optimal, in 2026.

This is where coordination matters. Estate plans don’t fail in isolation. They fail at the seams between legal documents, tax considerations, investment accounts, and insurance structures. Reviewing each element independently isn’t enough. The system has to work as a whole.

The Cost of Waiting

One of the cruel realities of estate planning is that problems often surface only when it’s too late to correct them.

Documents that aren’t reviewed don’t stay neutral. They decay.

The bull market has rewarded patience and long-term thinking. Estate planning rewards vigilance. The same inertia that allows portfolios to compound undisturbed can allow estate plans to drift into obsolescence.

A brokerage account can recover from years of neglect. An estate plan cannot.

A Practical Path Forward

If it’s been more than three years since your last review, or if you’ve experienced a meaningful life change, now is the right time to revisit your plan.

Start simply. Locate your estate documents. Review how your major assets are titled. Pull beneficiary designations. Note what has changed in your family, your finances, or your priorities.

From there, work with advisors who understand how these pieces interact. Often, the fixes are straightforward. Updating a designation. Retitling an account. Executing a targeted amendment. In other cases, a broader update may be appropriate.

Either way, the act of review is what matters most.

The Bottom Line

Markets reward patience. Estate planning rewards attention.

Your family deserves a plan that works not just on paper, but in practice. Not one that reflected your life ten years ago, but one that reflects who you are, what you own, and whom you care about today.

The bull market may continue.

The review shouldn’t wait.