Elder Law Report
Elder Law Report
Out With the Old, In With the New: Proper Document Disposal
Ever wondered what to do with outdated estate planning documents that might cause confusion in the future? Join us on the Elder Law Report as attorney Samantha Gordon and special guest attorney Jordan Bentley tackle this crucial issue head-on. You'll walk away with expert advice on how to properly dispose of old wills and powers of attorney, ensuring that only your current wishes are honored. Whether you've relocated, seen significant life changes, or are simply updating your estate plan, this episode has the actionable insights you need to keep your affairs in order.
We take a comprehensive look at the importance of revoking recorded powers of attorney and distributing the most up-to-date documents to your family and executors. Plus, we discuss the benefits and management of electronic document storage. From dramatic bonfires to secure bank-level vault portals, Samantha and Jordan cover all the best practices for handling old and new estate planning documents. Don’t miss this essential guide to avoiding potential legal complications and navigating the evolving landscape of estate planning with confidence.
Hi, welcome to the Elder Law Report. With McIntyre Elder Law, I'm attorney Samantha Gordon, and joining us we have attorney Jordan Bentley.
Jordan Bentley:Good morning.
Samantha Gordon:So today we're going to talk about old documents, specifically old estate planning documents. So, if you have gotten your estate plan done and maybe you have not looked at it for a while, you meet with a new estate planning attorney because you've moved, maybe from New York to North Carolina, which has been a lot of individuals over the years. Currently and more recently, you may want to decide what do I do with my old estate planning documents? I met with a North Carolina attorney. Things in my life have changed. My kids are older, I have grandkids. Now we're getting new estate planning documents. What do I do with my old documents?
Samantha Gordon:Well, first and foremost, when you execute new estate plan documents, generally, you revoke your previous documents. When you execute new ones, however, you do want to make sure that there's some type of physical act where either you shred them, you toss them, rip them up, do something with the documents to make sure that there's not two set of estate plan documents that are just sitting around that someone can possibly choose from. In addition to that, in North Carolina, if you have recorded a power of attorney, a general, durable power of attorney, which is a power of attorney that elects someone to manage your financial decisions for you while you're alive. If you have recorded that document with the register of deeds in a specific county and then you execute a new power of attorney, you need to revoke the previous power of attorney, which would require you filing a revocation at that register of deeds, jordan. In addition to that, what would be your recommendations for old documents?
Jordan Bentley:Well, I think it was really important a point that you made and you said a lot of good information there, but you really want to physically do something to get rid of them or destroy them, um.
Jordan Bentley:I always use the really dramatic example have a bonfire right, light them on fire, but shred them, rip them up right, get rid of them. And the reason you want to do that, um, is so that there's not any confusion. You don't want two or three wills out there, um, that you've signed right, or a or a couple of different powers of attorney. You want one document that you, that you maybe you've given some of those documents to the executor of your will, right, or to your agent and your power of attorney. I think you also want to collect those documents back as best you can. You know your agent and your executor. Maybe those are people in your family, people that you trust, hopefully right, if we've chosen the right people. So I think it's important to instruct them to destroy their physical copies or return them to you so you can destroy them as well.
Samantha Gordon:Yeah, definitely. Also in the new age of estate planning there's electronic documents. So we actually have a bank level vault portal where we upload documents after we have completed those for clients. So they have access via their phone, computer, whatever it may be. So you also want to make sure that if you have electronic copies and you have supplied that to your family members, your friends, whoever it is that you have in those documents, that you make sure that they're not using and relying on those documents and you give them a new set of electronic documents and ask them to delete the previous one. So if you have electronic access to documents, you want to make sure that somehow the electronic access to your old documents is not available and that you have your new documents that are available electronically. Jordan, anything else that you know our viewers may need to know about old estate plan documents, or any tips or tricks that you could let them know about.
Jordan Bentley:Yeah, I just think we should be clear, right? If you aren't able to get all those physical copies, maybe you've given you know, maybe your son or daughter, who's your agent, lives in a different state, lives far away, or you don't talk to that person anymore, and maybe your executor passed away. You don't know what they did with their copy of your will to be useful in passing your assets or managing your affairs. It's just beneficial to get rid of those old copies so that you don't have like we talked about. You don't have different things floating around that say you know different heirs are getting stuff or someone different has authority to act for you. You want to make sure that exactly what you think is in place are the documents that exist, so those are the only ones that can ever be presented or shown to someone with any authority.
Samantha Gordon:Of course, also, interestingly enough, behind you you have what on the earth is e-docs access. So that is going to be our step-by-step information guide as to what our e-docs is and how we upload our documents for your estate planning documents, and just making sure that everyone has those available. So I think that that was very nicely, you know, placed for this video.
Jordan Bentley:Yeah. So I think the key is right, whether you have electronic copies of your documents, physical copies, whether you've given them, given them out to your family, to your beneficiaries, so that they know you know what's coming to them, what your estate plan looks like, or maybe you just have one copy yourself that you keep in your file cabinet or in your safe deposit box, the important thing is that when you move to a new state or when things change in your life people are born, people die, your assets, your health, your wishes change there's a lot of reasons to make changes to your estate planning documents. And whatever those reasons, if you do make changes, I think it's important that you also understand that, while your old documents might be revoked, it's in your best interest to get rid of them or discard them so that, like, like I keep saying so they're not floating around out there.
Samantha Gordon:Definitely. There's four D's that you should always think about when you've had estate planning documents done and you may need new ones. Those four D's are death, divorce, disability and distance. So if someone were to pass away that you appointed your documents, you want to make sure that you update those. If you did your documents while you're married and now you're divorced, you're going to want to think about updating those documents. If someone in your life has maybe become disabled and they're on a government benefit, you're going to want to make sure that your documents reflect that. You know if they were to inherit anything from you, their government benefit would not be disqualified, or just having someone else manage those assets for them. And then distance if you were to move out of North Carolina or coming into North Carolina, you want to make sure that you meet with an estate planning attorney to ensure that your documents are up to date, and then we will also give you information as to what to do with your old documents.
Samantha Gordon:Thank you very much, jordan. I enjoyed discussing this with you. It's a very small part of what we do, but it's also just a very important part as well to make sure that everyone knows what to do with their old documents. If you would like to set up a free consultation with us, we would love to meet with you, discuss that and much more. Our telephone number is 888-999-6600, or you can visit our website at mcelderlawcom. Slash scheduling. Thanks, jordan.
Jordan Bentley:Thank.