Estate Planning in the New Year: 5 Documents to Update After Major Life Changes

Eugene Strupinsky • January 29, 2026

The start of the year offers an excellent opportunity to review your estate plan, especially if you've recently experienced significant life changes. Events such as marriage, divorce, the birth of a child, or acquiring substantial new assets can all impact your existing documents. Proper estate planning helps ensure your wishes are clear and your loved ones are protected, and residents in New York should be especially vigilant due to local regulations and the unique asset structures common in Brooklyn and New York City.

Below are the five most crucial estate planning documents you should review and update following life's major milestones.

1. Will

Your will serves as the cornerstone of your estate plan. It details how your assets should be distributed and who should care for minor children.

Following changes like a new marriage, divorce, or the arrival of a child, it is imperative to review and update your will to:

Reflect current family members and relationships.
Change or add guardians for minor children.
Amend asset distributions, especially if your financial landscape has shifted, which frequently happens in New York's fast-paced real estate environment.

2. Trusts

Whether you have a revocable living trust or an irrevocable trust, these legal tools can provide privacy, avoid probate, and manage legacy assets efficiently.

Major life changes warrant a review of your trust for reasons such as:

Adding or removing beneficiaries after birth or divorce.
Modifying asset allocations due to property acquisitions or financial changes, such as a new business venture in Brooklyn.
Appointing new trustees if former ones are no longer appropriate due to changed relationships.

3. Beneficiary Designations

Many assets transfer outside of probate through direct beneficiary designations, including retirement accounts, life insurance policies, and payable-on-death bank accounts. Marriage, divorce, or the death of a previous beneficiary should prompt you to:

Update account records to avoid accidental disinheritance.
Ensure that loved ones are accurately reflected and protected.
Revisit designations especially after moving or acquiring new accounts within New York's varied financial institutions.

4. Powers of Attorney

A durable power of attorney allows a trusted individual to handle your financial and legal affairs if you become incapacitated. Any shift in your personal relationships or the trustworthiness of your appointed agent is cause to:

Designate a new agent if your previous choice is no longer appropriate.
Ensure your agent remains geographically available, which matters if you relocate within or outside New York City.
Expand or limit powers as your personal and business interests evolve.

5. Medical Directives

Health care proxies and living wills outline your medical preferences and designate someone to make critical decisions on your behalf. These documents are essential for safeguarding your wishes in the event of incapacity. Adjust these documents to:

Reflect new spouses or trusted loved ones who should now make decisions.
Express any updated healthcare wishes as influenced by recent experiences or diagnoses.
Stay compliant with New York medical directive requirements, which are specific and require particular language.

Schedule Your Estate Plan Review with Khalifeh & Strupinsky, P.C. in Brooklyn and New York, NY

Timely estate plan updates after life changes are key for peace of mind and legal protection. If you reside in Brooklyn or anywhere in New York, Khalifeh & Strupinsky, P.C. is prepared to support you with comprehensive estate planning services, trust and probate administration, and asset protection planning. To schedule a confidential consultation, call 917-717-5007 or fill out the firm's secure online form today.

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By Kayla Gaisi • March 10, 2026

As generative AI becomes increasingly integrated into our daily lives, it continues to raise legal questions that courts can no longer ignore. This month, the question of whether communications between criminal defendants and public AI are protected from government inspection was answered by Judge Jed Rakoff. That answer was an unequivocal 'no.' In the case at hand, defendant Bradely Heppner was charged with fraud and arrested a month later, in November 2025. When the FBI executed a search warrant at his home, they seized documents containing communications between him and the public AI platform Claude AI. According to Heppner's counsel, these communications reflected a defense strategy Heppner had generated in anticipation of potential indictment. Heppner asserted that these documents were either protected under attorney-client privilege or by the work product doctrine, arguing that he had used Claude for the purpose of obtaining legal advice and had shared these outputs with his attorneys. However, Judge Rakoff rejected both arguments. Attorney-client privilege applies only to communications between a client and a professional who owes them fiduciary duties and is subject to discipline. It is a socially valuable human relationship. Regardless of how advanced an AI systems is, it cannot meet this definition. Claude is not a human attorney and does not have an attorney-client relationship with its users, so communications with it cannot qualify for attorney-client privilege. Aside from this, Rakoff listed other reasons why Heppner's communications with Claude are not considered confidential. Firstly, Claude is a public AI system whose privacy policy discloses that communications can be shared with third parties including "governmental regulatory authorities." Secondly, as his counsel admitted, Heppner sought legal advice from Claude on his own volition, not at their direction. Even if Heppner received legal advice and later shared that with his counsel, that does not render the initially unprivileged communication privileged. The related work product doctrine fared no better for Heppner. This doctrine protects materials prepared by attorneys in anticipation of litigation from discovery by opposing parties. Here, the AI-generated documents were not prepared by or at the behest of counsel and did not reflect counsel's strategy. Thus, they fell outside the scope of the doctrine. Judge Rakoff's ruling matters because it maintains the narrowness of evidentiary privileges that is necessary for protecting the judicial system's truth-seeking function. Extending privilege to communications with public AI systems could create a dangerous loophoole, one where parties could shield discoverable information by filtering it through a chatbot. But given Rakoff's ruling, the main takeaway here is that attorneys should explicitly advise their clients not to share personal or legal information with public AI systems. Despite how routine it has now become for many to ask public AI personal questions, these communications are not confidential, and may ultimately be used as evidence in court.