Estate planning is not just for wealthy people. If you own anything, have kids, or care about what happens to your medical decisions when you cannot make them yourself, you need a plan. The good news is that most people can handle the basics without spending thousands on an attorney.
This checklist walks you through the process step by step. Work through it at your own pace. Some steps take five minutes. Others require some thought. All of them matter.
Step 1: Take a Full Financial Inventory
Write down everything you own and everything you owe. Bank accounts, retirement funds, real estate, vehicles, life insurance policies, business interests, personal property, and digital assets like cryptocurrency or online accounts with monetary value. Then list your debts: mortgage, car loan, student loans, credit cards.
For each asset, note how it is titled (solely in your name, jointly, in a trust) and whether it has a named beneficiary. This determines whether the asset passes through your will or goes directly to someone outside of probate.
Step 2: Create or Update Your Will
Your will is the foundation. It names who gets your probate assets, who serves as executor, and who becomes guardian of your minor children. If you die without a will, state law decides all three. A free last will and testament lets you put your wishes in a legally valid format without starting from scratch.
If you already have a will, review it. Is your executor still the right person? Are all your beneficiaries still alive? Have you gotten married, divorced, or had more children since you signed it? Outdated wills cause as many problems as having no will at all.
Step 3: Set Up Power of Attorney
A will only takes effect after you die. But what happens if you are alive and incapacitated? A car accident, a stroke, a severe illness. Someone needs the legal authority to pay your bills, manage your investments, and handle your affairs. That is what a financial power of attorney does.
Use a free power of attorney form to designate someone you trust as your agent. Choose a durable power of attorney, which means it stays in effect even if you become mentally incapacitated. A regular power of attorney expires the moment you lose capacity, which is exactly when you need it most.
Step 4: Create a Living Will or Advance Directive
A living will tells doctors what medical treatments you want or do not want if you cannot communicate. Do you want to be kept on life support? Do you want CPR if your heart stops? What about feeding tubes? These are deeply personal decisions, and putting them in writing spares your family from making them during the worst moments of their lives.
Most people combine a living will with a healthcare power of attorney, which names someone to make medical decisions on your behalf. Together, these documents give you control even when you cannot speak for yourself.
Step 5: Consider a Living Trust
A trust is not required for everyone, but it offers real benefits. Assets in a trust skip probate entirely, which means faster distribution and more privacy. Probate is a public process. Anyone can look up what you owned and who inherited it. A trust keeps that information private.
A revocable living trust is the most common type. You maintain full control while you are alive and can change or revoke it anytime. After you die, the trust becomes irrevocable and your successor trustee distributes the assets according to your instructions. Use a free living trust template to see how trusts are structured.
Step 6: Review Beneficiary Designations
Here is something that surprises a lot of people: beneficiary designations on retirement accounts, life insurance policies, and payable-on-death bank accounts override your will. If your will says everything goes to your current spouse but your 401(k) still lists your ex, your ex gets the 401(k). Review every account and update the beneficiaries to match your current wishes.
Step 7: Organize and Store Your Documents
An estate plan that nobody can find is an estate plan that does not exist. Keep originals in a fireproof safe or safe deposit box. Give copies to your executor, your power of attorney agent, and your healthcare proxy. Tell them where the originals are stored.
- Will (original signed copy)
- Trust documents if applicable
- Financial power of attorney
- Healthcare power of attorney and living will
- Life insurance policies
- Retirement and investment account information
- Property deeds and vehicle titles
- List of digital accounts and passwords
How Often to Review Your Plan
At minimum, review your estate plan every three to five years. Review it immediately after any major life change: marriage, divorce, birth of a child, death of a beneficiary or executor, major purchase or sale of assets, move to a new state, or significant change in tax laws. The 2026 tax changes are a good example, since the estate tax exemption became permanent at $15 million and that shift quietly retired a lot of older planning advice. Estate planning is not a one-time event. It is an ongoing process that evolves with your life.