CONTRIBUTED CONTENT: You moved to Idaho. Does your old estate plan still work?

Many of the families who walk into my office didn't grow up here. They arrive from California, Washington, Texas or Oregon with a binder from an attorney two states away and one reasonable question: do we need to redo all of this?

Usually parts of another state’s estate planning can be kept and we don’t need to start from scratch. But "still valid" and "still works the way you think it does" are two different things, and the gap between them is where problems hide.

Your Will Almost Certainly Survived the Move

Idaho generally honors a will that was properly executed under the law of the state where you signed it. Crossing the state line didn't revoke anything.

What often doesn't come along is the self-proving affidavit — the notarized page that lets a court accept the will without hunting down your witnesses. If your old will lacks one, your family may need testimony from two people who watched you sign a document fifteen years ago in another state. That is a solvable problem now and an expensive one later.

Idaho Is a Community Property State

This is the change most transplants don't see coming. Idaho is one of nine community property states, and it treats marital assets fundamentally differently than the separate-property states most people come from. Property you acquired while living elsewhere doesn't simply convert. Idaho applies a concept called “quasi-community property”: assets that would have been community property had you bought them here are treated that way at the first spouse's death, which affects both what the surviving spouse is entitled to and what the plan you drafted elsewhere actually accomplishes.

There's an upside worth capturing, too. Community property generally receives a full step-up in cost basis at the first death rather than a half step-up — a meaningful tax advantage for couples with appreciated real estate or long-held investments. Idaho also allows real property to be held as community property with right of survivorship, which pairs that tax treatment with an automatic transfer to the survivor.

Idaho Doesn't Offer Every Tool Your Last State Did

Transfer-on-death deeds are the common casualty. Washington, Oregon, Montana, Nevada, and Utah all permit them; Idaho does not. If your prior plan leaned on a TOD deed for the house — or if you assumed you could do the same thing with your new Idaho home — that piece has no Idaho equivalent, and adding a child to the deed instead usually creates more problems than it solves. A living trust is a great solution to this issue in Idaho though.

Your Powers of Attorney Deserve a Second Look

A financial power of attorney and a health care directive are only as good as the willingness of a bank or hospital to honor them. Out-of-state forms with unfamiliar language may get questioned by a bank or hospital employee that doesn’t actually know the law, and that type of friction always seems to show up at the worst possible time. Idaho-specific documents may not be any more legitimate than what you already have, but they do reduce the likelihood that anyone will misinterpret what they are looking at.

Don't Forget the Property You Kept

Real estate is governed by the law of the state where it sits. If you held onto the house in California or the cabin in Montana, your family may face a second probate in that state on top of the Idaho one. A properly funded living trust holding title to both properties avoids the need for probate in any jurisdiction.

The Bottom Line

Moving to Idaho didn't invalidate your estate plan. It changed the body of law your plan operates under — and a plan drafted for separate-property rules doesn't automatically account for community property ones.

A review now is likely to be quicker and less expensive than you may think, and may avoid real hassle and expense in the future.

My law firm is currently offering free telephonic, electronic, or in-person consultations concerning probating estates or creating estate planning documents.

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Robert J. Green is an Elder Law, Trust, and Estate Planning Attorney and the owner of Kootenai Law Group, PLLC in Coeur d’Alene. If you have questions about estate planning, probates, wills, trusts, or powers of attorney, contact Kootenai Law at 208-765-6555, [email protected], or visit www.KootenaiLaw.com.

This has been presented as general information and not as legal advice. Do not engage in legal decision-making without the advice of a competent attorney after discussion of your specific circumstances.