The middle of the year is a quiet but useful moment to pause and look at things. The hustle of spring is behind us, the year-end rush hasn’t arrived yet, and summer offers a little extra breathing room. It’s a natural time to ask yourself a few simple questions about your estate plan — the kind of questions that are easy to answer but easy to forget to ask.

Here are five worth running through before the second half of the year picks up speed.

1. Do You Actually Have a Plan in Place?

It sounds basic, but it’s the most common gap we see. If you don’t have at least a will, a power of attorney, and a healthcare directive in place, you don’t have a plan — you have a default plan that someone else wrote for you. If that’s where you are, this is your sign. The first conversation is always the hardest, and it’s rarely as difficult as people expect.

2. When Was the Last Time You Looked at Your Documents?

If your plan is more than five years old, it’s probably worth revisiting. Families change. Finances change. Relationships change. The people you named ten years ago may not be the right people today — not because anything went wrong, but because life moved forward. A short review can confirm everything still fits or surface a few details that need attention.

3. Are Your Beneficiary Designations Up to Date?

This is one of the most overlooked pieces of estate planning. Retirement accounts, life insurance policies, and certain bank accounts pass according to the beneficiary listed on file — not according to your will. Take a few minutes this month to log in to each account and verify who’s named. You may be surprised by what you find. We’ve seen ex-spouses, deceased relatives, and outdated guardians still listed long after they should have been changed.

4. Do the Right People Know What to Do?

Your plan only works if the people you’ve named can act on it when the time comes. Does your executor know they’ve been named? Do your loved ones know where your important documents are kept? Do they know how to reach your attorney? A simple summary sheet — just a single page with names, locations, and contact information — can save your family a tremendous amount of stress.

5. Have Any Major Life Events Happened Recently?

Births. Deaths. Marriages. Divorces. New homes. New businesses. New diagnoses. Any of these can change what your estate plan should say. If something significant has happened in the past year or two and your plan hasn’t been updated to reflect it, that’s worth a phone call.

A Small Step Now Saves a Big Headache Later

None of this has to be done all at once. Even answering one or two of these questions honestly is a meaningful step forward. Estate planning isn’t about producing the perfect document on the first try — it’s about staying engaged with a plan that keeps up with your life.

If anything on this list raised a question for you, we’d be glad to help. A short conversation often clears things up quickly, and there’s no better time than now to make sure your plan still reflects the life you’re actually living.