We have always had estate planning clients changing their residency to and from Pennsylvania. There are a multitude of factors that cause these shifts. The reasons range from job opportunities, retirement to warmer climates, family ties, and so on. These days, with the increasing availability of remote working opportunities thanks to modern technology, which have most certainly grown and flourished during the pandemic, it seems that there have been more relocations than ever. Accordingly, it’s important to take stock of the impact a change in legal jurisdiction has on estate plans for clients.

As a general matter, we have not found any reason to be concerned that a client’s estate planning documents that were valid under the laws of a state where the client resided at the time of executed become “invalid” in a new jurisdiction. This seems to be a result of the principles of comity under the full faith and credit clause of the U.S. Constitution. However, just because the historic documents are valid, doesn’t mean there aren’t good reasons to update them, when time permits, to adapt to the typical estate plan structure of the new jurisdiction. Each state has its own statutory provisions and common law that impact the customary and optimal approach to estate planning in a particular jurisdiction. At the very least, we find it is advisable to update general (financial) powers of attorney and living wills (i.e., advance directives) and health care powers of attorney to conform to local law so that there will be less chance of complications due to the potential uncertainty of third parties in relying on documents that are designed for another state’s laws.

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