Major changes in your life—such as marriage, having a baby, moving out of state, or divorce—should prompt a revisit to your current will. It is important to revise your will at these times, in order to ensure your estate planning is up to date.

As retirees live longer, many worry about outliving their savings. However, many older Americans haven’t planned for a looming expense: the cost of long-term care.

It can be easy to overlook, but an estate plan is essential for nearly everyone, whether you have a lot of money or just a little. An estate plan tells your heirs and the courts how to divide up your assets. However, it also helps protect your loved ones from unnecessary hassle and expense – as well as potentially months, even years, tied up in the court system settling your estate.

As you’re making your estate plan, you’ll want to carefully consider everything. This means it may take a while to complete your plan. Here are five things to watch out for along the way.

There are many stories of strange conditions in wills and trusts over time. For example, the German poet Heinrich ‘Henry’ Heine died in 1856 and left his estate to his wife, Matilda, on the condition that she remarry, so that ‘there will be at least one man to regret my death’.

Life is messy sometimes. Divorce, bankruptcies and lawsuits happen. They can potentially wipe out the inheritance you’ve carefully set aside for your loved ones. However, there are many trust options to help keep life from ruining your legacy.

A pot trust is a type of trust that lists children as beneficiaries, with the trustee using his or her discretion as to how trust assets should be spent. If you have minor children, you might consider setting up a pot trust to meet their financial needs, if something should happen to you. This type of trust allows you to create a single pool of assets to be used for the benefit of multiple children.

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Your house might be your single most valuable financial asset. So you want to make sure you can give it to those you love when you die, without giving up the farm. That can be tricky.

A power of attorney is an important document. It is, nevertheless, frequently disregarded in estate planning. People usually concentrate their efforts on their wills and trusts, naming a power of attorney at the last minute.