I’ve just moved to a new state, but it’s just the state next door. So do I really need to change anything about my estate plan? I’m Sarah Siedentopf. I’m an estate planning attorney in Atlanta, Georgia.

And yes, if you have changed states, you very much almost certainly need to update. Wills, particularly, are very state-specific. There’s specific language required in wills, and if you try to probate an out-of-state will, there are often extra hurdles to jump through. Maybe we have to track down witnesses or get people to testify to your signature.

If you have moved to a new state, please do update your will.

Power of attorney and advance directive for healthcare. So legal and financial decisions, if you can’t make them for yourselves, and medical decisions, if you can’t make them for yourself. They are generally legal from state to state. Powers of attorney do have different witnessing requirements in each state. So it could actually be that if you move to a new state and you don’t have the right number of witnesses or a notary, depending on what the requirements are. You could actually have one that’s not valid in the new state.

But let’s say you have two witnesses in a notary on your power of attorney. It’s valid, that covers, some places require a notary. Some places require two witnesses. Some places require a witness and a notary, two witnesses and a notary, we got everybody. So in that situation, you still may benefit from updating to the new state. There may be specific rules about implementation and how we can force banks and other institutions to accept them, and when you do give your power of attorney to a bank or you give that advance directive to a hospital, a doctor, you want them to have the form they’re familiar with.

You don’t want them to have questions, you don’t want them to be searching for language. So I would also recommend updating those as well.

Trusts often travel very well. It’s likely that you will need minimal to no changes to a trust. Always a good idea to have an attorney in the new state run their eyes over it, look for any either problems, but also look for any opportunities that the new state may afford that your old one didn’t. The other pieces really should be updated to the new state law. It will make things easier for you, make things easier for everyone.

If you have moved to Georgia and would like to talk, please give me a call, and also please like and subscribe.