When was the last time you looked at your will? If you can’t remember, it is time for a review. Having outdated legal documents, such as a will or power of attorney, can wreak havoc on your health and your family’s wealth.

Indeed, people too often take a sign-it-and-forget-it approach with their important documents, financial advisers say. A recent Consumer Reports survey found that 86% of respondents who had wills or other estate documents hadn’t updated them within the past five years.

These documents ensure that your wishes are honored when you’re no longer able to act for yourself-either due to illness or death. Sure, most people would rather undergo the proverbial root canal than confront their mortality, but you neglect these documents at your peril.

Circumstances change over the course of a lifetime-and your documents need to keep pace. Grandchildren enter the picture, as do second spouses and sons-in-law. Estate and gift tax exclusion limits move up and down. Glenn Jarrett, an elder law attorney in Burlington, Vt., offers his clients a free document review every three years, although he cautions that clients shouldn’t wait to review after a major life change, such as divorce. “Sometimes, people don’t get around to doing it, and then it hurts them,” he said.

Below are some key documents to evaluate for updates. (While you’re at it, review the beneficiaries listed on your various retirement accounts and life insurance policies.) Although basic legal templates are available online, experts say most people are better off crafting these documents with the help of an attorney. Note that individual situations vary, and the laws governing these documents vary from state to state.

Wills

Wills should evolve over time. Make sure to update yours if you divorce, or if your beneficiaries change. If your nephew develops a gambling problem, for example, you might need to rethink leaving him the bulk of your estate.

You don’t need to update your will after every big purchase. Often, the document will refer to a personal property memorandum, directing the executor to a separate list of tangible personal property. So you needn’t execute a new will each time you buy a nice car or expensive watch-you can record them on the property list, dating and initialing each new entry.

One tip: Don’t keep the will in your safe deposit box, because the legal authority to open the box is often granted in the terms of the will itself, said Buckley Fricker, author of “Elder Care: The Road to Growing Old Is Not Paved,” and a geriatric care manager in northern Virginia. To be completely safe, put the document in a fire-resistant file cabinet in your home and make sure to tell your executor where to find it.

Trusts

Another big reason to revisit your will is to make sure that it is still the best estate-planning vehicle for you. As people go through life, acquiring new assets and family members and building more complicated estates, a trust might become more appropriate, experts say. Trusts are more flexible in addressing complex family dynamics than wills, said Fricker. And in cases where they’re appropriate, trusts can replace wills (more on that later).

If your kids are your beneficiaries and they’ve married, consider that your sons or daughters-in-law also stand to benefit from your assets. If you distrust the person your child married, you might take steps to ensure that person won’t have access to your money if your child dies. Alternatively, if you marry someone with children of their own, you might want to ensure that, after your spouse’s death, your assets eventually flow to your biological children, not to your stepchildren. Wills alone cannot address these nuances, Fricker said, for various reasons. For one thing, the will’s executor is a limited-time position, whose job finishes once the assets go through probate.

While there’s no particular asset threshold that bumps you up into trust territory, experts offer some guidance. In addition to those with complex family dynamics, people who own property in more than one state are often good candidates for trusts. Wills must go through probate in every state where there is real estate, an expensive and time-consuming process that may involve hiring a local attorney. Assets held in a trust generally avoid probate, since they’re not held directly in the name of the owner.

Another benefit of trusts over wills is that the former can operate during your lifetime. A trust can include provisions for gifting assets to heirs or charities and contain legally binding instructions for how your money and care should be handled if you become incapacitated, Fricker said. Wills, on the other hand, take effect only at death. While trusts in many cases can replace wills, they cannot name a guardian for children; a will is needed for that, Jarrett said.

Revisit your trust periodically. Some people direct their trusts to make annual gifts to family members up to the maximum, tax-exempt amount allowed by law, which this year is $14,000 per recipient per year. Perhaps you directed the trust to gift the maximum back when the annual limit was $10,000 per recipient and you had one grandchild. Now, you have six grandkids. If you fear the extra payouts will drain your assets too quickly, then you need to amend the terms of the trust.

Health-care directives

A health-care power of attorney names a person, known as an “agent,” to make health-care decisions on your behalf if you become incapacitated. Some states have joined the health-care power of attorney with a living will. Both of these documents are also referred to as “advance directives” (different states use different language when describing these documents). The living will-completely separate from an estate planning will-outlines what measures, if any, you would like to be taken to prolong your life if you become terminally ill.

Some states, including Vermont, have an advance directive registry that allows caregivers and medical personnel to access a directive when a patient becomes incapacitated. A sticker on the person’s driver’s license or other ID alerts helpers that a directive is on file.

Many experts recommend naming at least one backup agent in case your first agent can no longer serve. Short of that, at least review the document periodically. Thomas and Rob Fross, brothers and partners in Fross & Fross Wealth Management in The Villages, Fla., have a client with cancer who can no longer manage his affairs. The client had named his wife as his agent for power of attorney, but she had developed dementia by the time her services were needed. The couple’s children had to go to court to have a guardian appointed for their father, a time-consuming, expensive and stressful process at an already difficult time.

Fricker recommends that agents carry a copy of their loved ones’ health-care power of attorney in their car’s glove compartment, so they have easy access to it in an emergency.

Financial power of attorney

Comparable to the health-care power of attorney, a financial power of attorney names a person to handle your financial affairs if you’re no longer able to do so. While preparing such a document, it is also worth considering another housekeeping exercise: Consolidating your various bank and brokerage accounts will help you manage them into older age-and can also make it easier for one agent to take the reins if needed, said Michael Finke, a professor of personal financial planning at Texas Tech University.