Estate Planning Essentials

Make sense of wills, trusts and powers of attorney, then organize the decisions and information your family will need.

Estate Planning Essentials brings the main parts of a U.S. estate plan together in one practical guide. Plain-English explanations and an estate planning worksheet help you identify your priorities, understand your options and prepare for the next steps.

You do not need to be wealthy to have affairs worth organizing. This book is for people who want to provide for loved ones, plan for incapacity and reduce uncertainty about who should make decisions and receive their property.

Build a clearer picture of your plan:

• Provide for the people who matter: consider beneficiaries, guardians for children, executors and trustees.
• Understand the documents: explore wills, revocable living trusts, financial powers of attorney, healthcare powers of attorney and living wills.
• Review how property passes: understand probate, joint ownership, beneficiary designations and other transfer methods.
• Consider more involved circumstances: explore gifts, estate taxes, blended families, unmarried partners, divorce and family-business succession.
• Include your digital life: organize digital assets and instructions alongside your other records.
• Keep the plan useful: decide where to store documents, when to review them and when professional advice may be needed.

Turn information into an organized record. The included estate planning worksheet helps you list assets and liabilities, identify important people and record where documents are kept. A blank copy is also downloadable from EstateBee using the instructions and code in the book; a free EstateBee account and internet access are required.

This planning guide and worksheet help you understand your choices before preparing the legal documents you need or discussing them with an attorney. U.S. laws and individual circumstances vary.