Spring Cleaning Your Estate Plan: Essential Documents to Review Before Tax Day 

Every spring, millions of Americans pull out their financial records, dig up receipts, and tackle their taxes. It’s a season of reckoning, and if you think about it, the perfect time to take stock of something even more important than your tax return: your estate plan.

Think of it as spring cleaning for your legal life. Just as you wouldn’t leave winter clutter piled up indefinitely, you shouldn’t let your estate planning documents sit untouched year after year. Life changes. Connecticut law changes. Your family changes. And when those changes happen, outdated documents can cause real problems for the people you love most.

Here are the key estate planning documents every Connecticut resident should review before Tax Day, and why each one matters.

1. Your Will

Your will is the foundation of your estate plan, and one of the most commonly neglected documents in a drawer. In Connecticut, if you die without a valid will (called dying “intestate”), the state’s intestacy laws under Connecticut General Statutes §45a-437 dictate how your assets are distributed. The results may not align with your wishes at all.

Ask yourself:

• Has your family structure changed? (marriage, divorce, new children or grandchildren, deaths in the family)
• Have you acquired or sold significant assets?
• Do your named beneficiaries still reflect your wishes?
• Is your chosen executor still the right person, and whether they are still willing and able to serve?

Connecticut requires that wills be signed in the presence of two witnesses (CGS §45a-251). If your will predates major life changes, it’s time to revisit it with an attorney.

2. Durable Power of Attorney

A Durable Power of Attorney (DPOA) authorizes someone you trust (your “agent”) to manage your financial affairs if you become incapacitated. Connecticut updated its Power of Attorney statutes significantly with Public Act 15-240, effective October 1, 2016.

If your DPOA was signed before October 2016, it may not include the updated statutory form provisions or may be subject to increased scrutiny by financial institutions. Many banks and investment firms have become reluctant to honor older forms, leaving your agent in a frustrating limbo when they need to act on your behalf.

Spring is a good time to confirm your DPOA:

• Is current and compliant with Connecticut’s updated statutes
• Names an agent you still trust completely
• Has been accepted recently by your financial institutions (if you’ve needed to use it)

3. Healthcare Directives (Living Will & Healthcare Representative)

Connecticut law provides two key documents for healthcare decision-making:

Living Will: Documents your wishes regarding life-sustaining treatment if you are terminally ill or in a permanent vegetative state (CGS §19a-575).

Appointment of Healthcare Representative: Designates someone to make broader medical decisions on your behalf (CGS §19a-575a).

Review these documents if your health situation has changed, if your relationship with your named representative has shifted, or if your wishes about end-of-life care have evolved. These are deeply personal documents, and they should accurately reflect who you are today, not who you were when you first signed them.

4. Beneficiary Designations

Here’s a critical detail many people miss: beneficiary designations on retirement accounts, life insurance policies, and certain bank accounts override your will. Completely.

That means if your 401(k) still names an ex-spouse as the beneficiary. If your will says otherwise, your ex-spouse inherits. Connecticut courts have consistently upheld this principle, and federal law governs many retirement accounts in the same way.

Pull out statements for every account that has a beneficiary designation and verify:

• Primary and contingent beneficiaries are current
• Minors are not named directly (a trust or custodian arrangement is preferable)
• Beneficiary information is on file and up to date with each institution

5. Trusts

If you have a revocable living trust, confirm that it’s properly funded, meaning your assets are actually titled in the name of the trust. A trust that isn’t funded doesn’t avoid probate, which defeats a primary purpose of having one.

Also consider whether your trust still aligns with your goals. Connecticut’s probate process (overseen by the Connecticut Probate Court system) can be time-consuming and costly. A properly structured trust can spare your family significant stress and expense.

For those doing Medicaid planning, note that Connecticut’s Title 19 (Medicaid) rules have a five-year look-back period for asset transfers. Any trust arrangements intended to protect assets for Medicaid eligibility require careful, proactive legal guidance, and spring is never too early to start that conversation.

A Note on Connecticut’s Estate Tax

Since this is a Tax Day-adjacent review, it’s worth noting: Connecticut is one of the few states with its own estate tax. Under CGS §12-391, Connecticut imposes an estate tax on taxable estates exceeding $13.61 million (the 2024 threshold, which now matches the federal exemption after recent legislative changes). Connecticut also has a gift tax, which is relatively rare at the state level.

If your estate is approaching or exceeding these thresholds, or if you’re making significant gifts, spring tax season is a natural time to review your planning strategies with an estate attorney.

Don’t Wait for a Crisis to Review Your Plan

Estate planning isn’t a one-and-done task. It’s an ongoing process that should evolve as your life does. The attorneys at The Prue Law Group have guided Connecticut families through every stage of this process since 1980. With Attorney Patrick Prue’s more than 20 years of experience as a probate judge, we bring a depth of insight into Connecticut’s probate and estate system that few firms can match.

This spring, take an hour to pull out your documents. Then give us a call. We’ll help you make sure everything is in order, so your family doesn’t have to figure it out later.

Schedule a consultation at any of our four Connecticut office locations: Willimantic, Brooklyn, Coventry, or Colchester. Call us at (860) 423-9231 or visit pruelawgroup.com.

Ready to review your estate plan? Contact The Prue Law Group today to schedule a consultation. Our team combines deep Connecticut legal knowledge with personalized attention to ensure your plan works exactly as you intend.

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Sources:

Connecticut General Statutes §45a-437: Intestate succession.https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_802b.htm

Connecticut General Statutes §45a-251: Execution of wills.https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_802b.htm

Connecticut Public Act 15-240 (effective Oct. 1, 2016): Power of Attorney reforms.https://www.cga.ct.gov/2015/ACT/pa/2015PA-00240-R00SB-00944-PA.htm

Connecticut General Statutes §19a-575 & §19a-575a: Living Will and Healthcare Representative statutes.https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_368a.htm

Connecticut General Statutes §12-391: Connecticut Estate and Gift Tax.https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_217.htm

Connecticut Probate Court: Official probate court resources.http://www.ctprobate.gov/

Connecticut Department of Social Services: Title 19 / Medicaid eligibility and look-back rules.https://www.ct.gov/dss/cwp/view.asp?a=2353&q=305218

IRS: 2024 Estate and Gift Tax Exemptions.https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/estate-tax

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The Prue Law Group has served eastern and central Connecticut since 1980, providing comprehensive business law, estate planning, probate, and elder law services. Our team’s deep local knowledge and specialized expertise help business owners protect what matters most. AI may have been used for the initial research and drafting of the article. This content is intended for general informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice. For guidance on your specific situation, please contact our office for a consultation.