Limitless Article, July 2024
Do You Need a New Will if Lake Norman is Your Funkytown?
“Funkytown” by Lipps, Inc., topped the Billboard Hot 100 the summer I turned, well, I turned old enough to enjoy disco music. It blared over and over again all day long from the speakers of the community center at our campground on Gaston Lake where my family often vacationed. It is one of my songs of summer. Verse 1 goes like this …
“Gotta make a move to a town that’s right for me; Town to keep me movin’, keep me groovin’ with some energy”.
If you have moved to one of the many wonderful communities around Lake Norman, and are asking, is it time to get a new set of estate planning documents? The answer is, it depends. Do your out of state documents meet the state’s basic requirements? If yes, then your estate planning documents may be valid in NC under the U.S. Constitution’s “Full Faith and Credit Clause” (Article IV, Section 1). However, since the out of state documents are based on the state law where and when they were drafted, they may not meet your needs now that you have relocated to North Carolina.
Estate planning documents are, in large part, designed to ease the stress and uncertainty during life’s toughest circumstances. Having documents that comply with North Carolina law, will help avoid delay or confusion with the North Carolina courts as well as financial institutions or hospitals. For this reason alone, it is always a good idea to have your estate planning documents reviewed and updated by an experienced, local estate planning attorney.
Often, reviewing documents that are more than 5 years old uncovers the need for changes in beneficiary circumstances, or even change in your own personal wishes or goals. The estate plan review gives you the opportunity to address these changes with new or amended documents.
Then you can keep“movin’ and groovin”, confident in knowing that you and your family are prepared for challenges that may come your way, all while enjoying the best life has to offer at Lake Norman.
Leah B. Trowbridge is an Estate Planning and Small Business Succession Planning attorney with The McIntosh Law Firm in Davidson.
https://www.mcintoshlawfirm.com/attorneys/leah-b-trowbridge/