Do your will & beneficiaries match? "A woman came in and told me that my will was much more expensive than the one she had had drafted [previously]," legal columnist Attorney Gina Barry told PRIME. "[But] when I went through her asset list I found that, based on joint ownership, she had all of her assets going to one child." "Her $50 will wasn't worth the paper it was written on," Barry continued. "Because it wasn't going to carry out her wishes." Fortunately Barry, an estate planning and elder law specialist with Bacon Wilson P. C. of Springfield, caught the discrepancy and was able to help the client correct her documents to reflect her wishes. Barry's advice to readers don't wait for a significant life event a marriage, a divorce, the birth of a child or grandchild to schedule an estate plan review with your attorney. As an estate planner, she'd love to have clients review the accuracy of their plans annually, but knows that's "not realistic." "When you go in for the review, make sure that you bring all your documents with you, especially if [the lawyer you are seeing] didn't draft [your plan]," Barry said. "People's memory is not always that accurate; they may think that their Will is written one way, but the reality of what is written in the document may not be what their memory says it is." The list of documents you bring along should include an updated asset list, or at least information about what you own and how you own it (e.g. jointly, with survivorship, with beneficiaries, etc.). "Make sure that the structure of your assets is consistent with [your estate] plan," Barry said. "Make sure that the ownership and beneficiary designations [of assets] are consistent with the plan." She said that certain assets, such as life insurance, retirement accounts and some stocks, will have provisions for you to select true beneficiaries, and that you need to make sure the information for those items is still accurate and consistent. "Stocks and bonds can go either way, some are held in survivorship." she said. "What most people have trouble with is bank accounts [especially] when there is joint ownership [by a parent and one child]. The other children will need to prove that this account was established for convenience only, and should be divided." And, when you've checked all your asset information, be sure to make certain that any updates or revisions that were [or are] drafted by your attorney were [or are] properly signed and filed. "What you think is in your will may not actually be in your will," she said.