Resources
Your estate plan, in three phases.
A guided reading path through the 18 decisions most California families face, in the order we tend to work through them.
Phase one
Decide who acts for you.
Before any document gets drafted, settle the people and protections. This is the hardest thinking, and everything else follows from it.
Decision makers and guardians
Name the people who step in when you cannot, and always name alternates.
- Choose guardians for minor children, including at least one backup.
- Decide who makes medical decisions if you cannot (advance health care directive), with at least one alternate.
- Decide who makes financial decisions if you cannot (power of attorney), with at least one alternate.
- If both parents pass: decide who manages money for the kids and who raises them, with alternates.
People you provide for
Support obligations, family gifts, and charitable giving, and when each takes effect.
- 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, decide whether the surviving spouse can change them.
Protections for spouse and children
How much freedom the surviving spouse has, and how and when children receive their share.
- 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 or ages they get control.
- Consider a cap on what children receive and who gets the rest (people or charities).
- Plan how children inherit (age based trusts vs. outright at 18).
Phase two
Map what you own.
Take stock of the pieces your plan will actually move, and confirm the paperwork already on file matches your goals.
Your assets and beneficiaries
What you own, how it is titled, and making sure beneficiary forms match your plan.
- 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.
- If you own a business or real estate, gather entity documents and deeds.
Phase three
Keep it current.
A plan is only as good as the day it is kept up to date. Build in backups and a simple review rhythm.
Backups and ongoing review
Plan for the unexpected and keep everything current as life changes.
- Name backup beneficiaries if both you and all of your children pass.
- Create a review rhythm (every year or two, and after big life events).
Ready for phase four?
Turn the decisions into documents.
Book a free 15 minute consultation and we will shape the answers above into a plan your family can rely on.
Take it with you
Email yourself the checklist.
We will send a PDF of the three phase checklist above, formatted for printing or reading later.
Informational only. Not legal advice. No attorney client relationship is formed without a signed engagement agreement.