If you live in California and prepare a will or a trust and then move out of state, you may need to update your estate plan. Now, this doesn’t mean that you would have to recreate your will or your trust. Most states, like California, have rules that say that a will from another state can be probated in that state. A trust written anywhere in the United States is valid in all 50 states.
When it comes to your power of attorney and your advanced health care directive, however, that is another story. Those documents, by and large, are state specific, which means that each state has its own individual rules about what is required for a power of attorney or a healthcare directive. So, if you move to another state, your will and your trust will still work the way that you want them to work, but you may need to update your power of attorney or your advanced healthcare directive.
Quick Question Corner is a video segment where we answer common questions about estate planning and elder law. If you have similar questions, leave them in the comment section and we can feature them in one of our videos in the future.
