Resources
California estate planning checklist (parents + homeowners)
A quick, practical checklist to help you identify what to handle next. General information only—not legal advice.
- ✓Choose guardians for minor children (and backups)
- ✓Decide who makes medical decisions if you can't (advance health care directive) and at least one alternate
- ✓Decide who makes financial decisions if you can't (power of attorney) and at least one alternate
- ✓If both parents die: who manages money for the kids and who is guardian (with alternates)
- ✓List anyone you support financially and whether that support should continue after your death
- ✓Decide any large gifts to family or friends and whether they happen at first death or only after both
- ✓Decide charitable gifts and when they take effect; if at second death, whether the surviving spouse can change them
- ✓Think through what the surviving spouse can do with your inheritance (full use vs. protections, remarriage)
- ✓Decide whether to set aside a specific amount for children at first death
- ✓Decide how much protection children should have from their own decisions and at what age(s) they get control
- ✓Consider a cap on what children receive and who gets the rest (people or charities)
- ✓Name backup beneficiaries if both you and all your children die
- ✓Inventory your assets (home, accounts, insurance, retirement, business interests, real estate)
- ✓Confirm beneficiary designations match your goals
- ✓Decide whether a revocable living trust makes sense for your home and situation
- ✓Plan for how children inherit (age-based trusts vs. outright at 18)
- ✓If you own a business or real estate, gather entity docs and deeds
- ✓Create a review rhythm (every 1–2 years and after big life events)
Informational only. Not legal advice. No attorney-client relationship is formed without a signed engagement agreement.