When many people hear “estate planning,” they imagine wealthy families dividing inheritances or dramatic will readings in a lawyer’s office. It can feel intimidating, morbid, or irrelevant—especially if you’re not Warren Buffett or Oprah Winfrey. But the truth is, estate planning is really about life planning.
Some of the most important estate-planning documents, like a power of attorney or healthcare directive, are neither about wealth nor primarily about what happens after you die. They’re about protecting you and your loved ones if something unexpected happens while you’re alive.
Imagine being in the hospital after an accident and your loved ones can’t access your accounts to pay bills. Or your college-age child gets sick, and the hospital refuses to give you updates because of privacy laws. With the right documents, someone you trust can step in immediately. Without them, your family could face confusion, delays, and unnecessary stress at the worst possible time.
That’s why we prefer to think of ‘estate planning’ as contingency planning or even disaster recovery. A well-crafted plan gives you peace of mind, protects your family, and simplifies decisions during difficult times, regardless of your net worth.
Here’s a roadmap to the common components of a basic estate plan. Young adults, parents of minor children, and retirees may prioritize different documents. To figure out what’s needed for your circumstances, you’ll need to address a variety of other details, ideally in conversation with your attorney.
Core Documents Everyone Should Consider
1. Beneficiary Designations
Some of the most important estate-planning decisions aren’t in your will or trust at all and are easy to overlook. Retirement accounts, life insurance policies, and certain bank or brokerage accounts let you name beneficiaries directly.
These designations override your will or trust. If your will leaves everything to your spouse but your IRA still lists an old beneficiary, the IRA goes to that person.
They’re often the simplest way to transfer assets quickly, without probate.
Review them regularly, especially after major life changes like marriage, divorce, or the birth of a child.
2. Will (last will & testament)
A will is the cornerstone of your estate plan. It ensures your wishes are carried out and prevents confusion or conflict after you’re gone.
Names an executor to settle your affairs, pay bills, and distribute assets
Specifies who inherits your property, including accounts without a named beneficiary
Allows you to appoint guardians for minor children
Provides a safety net to make sure nothing is overlooked
Without a will, state law decides who inherits your property. That can open the possibility for delays, disputes, and even leave out people you might have wanted to provide for.
3. Revocable Living Trust (living trust or revocable trust)
A revocable living trust is one of the simplest ways to make things easier for your heirs. It allows you to keep full control of your assets while you’re alive, but helps your loved ones avoid the time, cost, and stress of the court process known as probate after your passing.
Key benefits of a revocable living trust:
Avoids probate, which in many states is slow, costly, and public
Provides one document to manage a range of estate-planning goals, from naming beneficiaries to creating trusts for children or grandchildren
Allows changes or revocation at any time during your lifetime
Ensures privacy around financial matters, unlike the public nature of probate records
Simplifies estate administration when you own property in multiple states
Every state’s rules are a little different. In California, probate is notoriously expensive and slow, which makes trusts common. In states where probate is simpler, a trust is most useful for people who value privacy or own property in more than one state. Regardless, the nuances make it worth discussing with an estate-planning attorney to see if a trust is the right fit for you.
4. Durable Power of Attorney (financial power of attorney or POA)
A durable power of attorney – aka “financial power of attorney” – lets someone you trust act on your behalf for financial and legal matters if you’re incapacitated. Without one, your family might need to go to court for a conservatorship—an expensive, stressful process.
A POA is one of the clearest examples of estate planning as disaster recovery. If you’re recovering from an illness or injury, your agent can:
Pay bills and manage bank accounts
Handle insurance claims or sign tax returns
Make sure your household and financial life keeps running
It’s smart to review your POA periodically as banks and other institutions sometimes question very old documents. Keeping your POAs updated every few years can help avoid problems down the road.
5. Advanced Health Care Directive (living will or health care proxy)
An advanced healthcare directive spells out your wishes for medical care and names a healthcare agent to speak for you if you can’t.
Without this, your family may face heart-wrenching decisions without knowing what you would want. Some healthcare providers might even refuse to listen to your loved ones who do know your wishes but have no authority to speak for you.
One option to address this is the advance directive offered by the organization Five Wishes, which combines both the legal and personal guidance.
6. HIPAA Authorization (medical information release)
A HIPAA authorization lets your medical providers share information with specific people you name. Without it, healthcare providers may refuse to share medical information with your loved ones. This is crucial for parents of adult children: once your child turns 18, doctors can’t talk to you without this release, even in an emergency.
For families with kids in college or traveling abroad, having a HIPAA release as well as a healthcare directive for your child is a simple but essential step.
Tax and Financial Considerations
For families with larger estates, planning may also include strategies to reduce estate or gift taxes, coordinate with charitable giving, or integrate business and investment planning. These issues don’t apply to everyone, but if they may be relevant in your situation, it’s worth raising them with your attorney or tax advisor.
Getting Started
As we’ve seen, the basic components of an estate plan are not just about wealth. They are about making hard situations easier for you and the people you love.
So how do you get started? Can you prepare your own documents, or should you work with an attorney?
Online document services can be a helpful starting point, especially for those without easy access to legal counsel. They can also be useful in a pinch with straightforward situations.
However, if possible, we strongly recommend consulting a dedicated estate-planning attorney. An attorney can guide you through nuanced decisions, ensure your documents meet your state’s requirements, and provide a trusted resource for updates or emergencies in the future.
However you proceed, keep in mind that the biggest obstacle to a good estate plan is often the pursuit of a perfect one. We recommend getting good-enough documents in place now and refining them over time as your circumstances change or decisions become clearer.
Other Considerations
Completing your estate-planning documents is an important milestone, but it’s not the finish line. There may be steps required to implement some of the provisions in your new documents. Here are a few things you may need to address to ensure that your plan works the way you intend.
Fund your trust: Funding your trust is essential but often overlooked. Retitle accounts and property into the trust’s name so it can work as intended.
Plan for digital assets: Include passwords and access instructions for email, social media, online banking, and other important online accounts.
Address special assets: Businesses, rental properties, or heirlooms often need their own planning strategies. A buy-sell agreement, management succession plan, or clear instructions for handling sentimental property can prevent disputes later.
Explanatory letter / ethical will: Beyond legal documents, many people choose to leave a letter with personal guidance, values, stories, or wishes for loved ones. While not legally binding, these can be deeply meaningful to families. For ideas on what to include, see Ethical Will.
Practical readiness: An estate plan only works if loved ones can find and use it. Tell your family or executor where documents are stored, provide a simple “roadmap” with account details and key contacts, and let anyone named in a role such as executor or trustee know how much you value their help when the time comes.
Estate Plan Maintenance
Plans need attention over time as our lives change or laws evolve. Here a few guidelines for periodic reviews:
Consider updates: Review every 5 to 10 years, and after major life events such as marriage, divorce, the birth of a child, a move across state lines, or the purchase of a new home.
Refresh powers of attorney: Some banks hesitate to accept older POAs, so consult your attorney or financial institution about how often to update.
Check trustees, guardians, and property schedules: Make sure the people you have named still match your wishes and remain willing to help when the time comes.
Review beneficiaries: Check retirement accounts, insurance, and transfer-on-death accounts periodically to keep designations current.
Congratulations
By completing your plan, you’ve done more than organize paperwork. You’ve made a thoughtful choice to look ahead, reduce uncertainty, and give your family the gift of clarity. It’s an accomplishment that benefits you today and will matter even more in the future to those who love you.