About this document
Most estate plans fail not because the documents were wrong, but because the documents were never updated, the beneficiaries never matched, or the family never knew where the file was. The mechanics of estate planning are knowable. The discipline of keeping them current is where almost every household falls short.
This guide covers the core instruments: will, revocable trust, durable power of attorney, healthcare directive, and the beneficiary designations that override all of them. It walks the 2026 federal exemption picture, the sunset question, and how state estate taxes layer on top in the handful of states that still impose them.
It is not a substitute for an attorney. It is the context that lets you sit with an attorney and ask the right questions.
What is inside
- The four core documents every household should have
- Will versus revocable living trust (when each is actually the right call)
- Beneficiary designations: the silent override on almost everything
- Durable power of attorney and healthcare directives
- 2026 federal estate and gift tax exemption, portability, and the sunset
- State estate and inheritance taxes (the seventeen states that still have them)
- Trust basics: revocable versus irrevocable, grantor versus non-grantor
- The annual review checklist: what to look at every year, not every decade
Closes with a one-page family letter template: where the documents live, who to call, what to do first.
How to use it
Once, to inventory. Walk the checklist and mark every document you already have, every one you do not, and every beneficiary you are not sure about. Bring the list to our next meeting.
Annually, to refresh. Lives change. Marriages, births, deaths, moves across state lines, new retirement accounts, sold businesses. Each one can silently break an estate plan that was correct last year. Once a year, walk it.
Before you sign anything. If an attorney hands you a draft will or trust, read the relevant section here first. Vocabulary matters. Questions asked before signing are cheaper than questions asked after.
Preview
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