Congratulations on your new home. Whether this is your first home, your next home, or a move into a space that better fits your life, buying real estate is a major milestone. There are important estate planning steps every new homeowner should take after making such a significant investment.
While you are busy unpacking boxes and settling in, it is also a good time to take a closer look at your estate plan. A new home often changes your financial picture, your insurance needs, and the way your assets should be organized.
Here are three estate planning steps every new homeowner should consider.
1. Update Your Address
Updating your address should be one of your first housekeeping tasks.
Start with the United States Postal Service so your mail can be forwarded to your new address. Mail forwarding is temporary, so you should also update your address directly with financial institutions. In addition, remember retirement accounts, investment accounts, insurance providers, and other important contacts.
You should also update your driver’s license and notify the Internal Revenue Service using Form 8822, along with your state tax agency if required.1 Or have your tax preparer help you with this. Keeping your address current helps ensure that you receive important tax notices, account statements, refund information, and other documents without delay.
2. Make Sure Your Home’s Ownership Matches Your Estate Plan
After closing, review your deed to confirm how your home is legally titled. This matters because title affects how the property is managed if you become incapacitated and how it transfers after your death.
If you already have a trust, your home may need to be titled in the name of the trust so the trust instructions actually control what happens to the property. If the home remains titled only in your individual name, your family may still face probate or other delays. This depends on your plan and state law.
You should also review any estate planning documents that refer to your prior home. If your old property was specifically mentioned in your will, trust, or related documents, those provisions may need to be updated to reflect your new home.
If this is your first home and you do not yet have an estate plan, this is an ideal time to create one. For many people, a home is one of their largest assets. A plan helps ensure that it is managed by the right people and transferred according to your wishes.
3. Review Life Insurance and Beneficiary Designations
If you financed your home, you may now have a significant mortgage. Life insurance can help protect your loved ones by providing funds to cover that obligation if something happens to you.
This can give a surviving spouse, partner, or family member the flexibility to stay in the home, pay expenses, or make decisions without immediate financial pressure.
You should also review your beneficiary designations on life insurance, retirement accounts, and other financial accounts. These designations typically override your will, so they need to match your current wishes and overall estate plan.
Outdated beneficiary forms can cause serious problems. Assets may go to the wrong person, bypass intended beneficiaries, or be distributed without the protections you wanted.
Finally, review your insurance coverage more broadly. If your home is titled in a trust, talk with your insurance agent to make sure the policy reflects the correct ownership structure. This sometimes means the insurance company should add the trust as an “additional insured” or “additional interest.” This is also a good time to ask about coverage limits, bundling discounts, and whether your homeowner’s policy fully protects your new property.
Protect Your Home and Your Legacy
Owning a new home brings new responsibilities and new opportunities to protect the people you love. Updating your address, reviewing your deed, coordinating your estate plan, and checking your beneficiary designations can prevent confusion later.
If you recently bought a home, we can help you review how the property is titled, update your estate planning documents, and make sure your new home fits into your broader legacy planning goals.
- I.R.S., Form 8822, Change of Address (Feb. 2021), https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8822.pdf. ↩︎
