An estate planning checklist covers the documents that say who gets your assets, who decides for you if you’re unable to, and how each account passes when you die. For most retirees that means a will, powers of attorney for money and health care, and current beneficiary designations. A trust and a letter of instruction round it out.
Start with the account forms. Retirement accounts and life insurance can go to whoever is named on the account, whatever your will says, AARP notes.
What Is Estate Planning?
Estate planning is deciding, in writing, what happens to your money and property after you die and who makes decisions if illness leaves you unable to. It covers incapacity as much as death. A power of attorney and a health care proxy do their work while you’re alive.
You don’t need a large estate to need a plan. The average inheritance is about $125,000, by Boldin’s analysis of the Federal Reserve’s 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances, and most families get less. At any size, the documents decide how fast the money arrives and whether your family has to go to court to get it.
What Documents Do You Need for an Estate Plan?
Ten documents cover most retirees. Some you’ll sign once with an attorney. Others are forms you update online in a few minutes.
Estate planning checklist: 10 documents
| Document | What it does | Review it |
|---|---|---|
| Will | Names who gets property that has no beneficiary, names an executor and can name a guardian for minor children | Every few years and after major life events |
| Revocable living trust | Holds assets you retitle into it and passes them outside probate | When you buy property or open accounts |
| Durable financial power of attorney | Lets someone you choose handle money and bills when you’re unable to | When your agent’s situation changes |
| Health care proxy (medical power of attorney) | Names the person who makes medical decisions for you | When your health or your agent changes |
| Living will (advance directive) | Records the treatment you do and don’t want | After a new diagnosis |
| Beneficiary designations | Decide who receives IRAs, 401(k)s and life insurance | After marriage, divorce, a death or a new account |
| Transfer-on-death and payable-on-death registrations | Pass brokerage and bank accounts straight to the people you name | When you open or move accounts |
| Letter of instruction | Tells your executor where things are and what you want, in plain language | Once a year |
| Digital asset instructions | Lists online accounts, passwords or a password manager, and who can access them | Once a year |
| Account and document inventory | Lists every account, policy and property, plus where the originals are kept | Once a year |
Source: Boldin. Beneficiary designations: AARP; transfer-on-death registration: Investor.gov.
The health care documents go by different names from state to state. MedlinePlus, from the National Library of Medicine, describes a health care proxy as the person who makes your medical decisions when you can’t. A living will records the treatment you do and don’t want. Many states combine the two in one advance directive form.
Powers of attorney also let someone you trust carry out your plan for long-term care after a stroke or a dementia diagnosis.
Will vs. Trust: Which Do You Need?
Most people need a will. A revocable living trust adds privacy and a way around probate for the assets you put in it. It costs more to set up and only works for assets you retitle into the trust’s name.
Will vs. revocable living trust
| Feature | Will | Revocable living trust |
|---|---|---|
| Goes through probate | Yes | No, for assets titled in the trust |
| Becomes public record | Yes, once filed in probate | No |
| Covers incapacity | No; you need powers of attorney too | Yes; your successor trustee can manage trust assets |
| Can name a guardian for minor children | Yes | No |
| Setup effort | Lower | Higher; you retitle assets into the trust |
| Fits best | Simple estates, most assets with beneficiaries | Property in several states, privacy, blended families |
Source: Boldin. State probate rules vary; confirm details with an estate attorney in your state.
A trust tends to fit if you own real estate in more than one state, want to keep your affairs private, or expect a family member to need help managing money. A will can still name a guardian and catch anything left outside the trust, so people with trusts often have both.
How Do Beneficiary Designations Work With Your Will?
In most cases, beneficiary designations override your will for the accounts they cover. Retirement accounts and life insurance pay the people named on each account’s form. Updating your will doesn’t update those forms.
That makes the forms the first thing to check after a marriage, divorce or death in the family. Name a contingent beneficiary too, in case your first choice dies before you.
Retirement accounts come with tax rules for heirs. Most non-spouse beneficiaries who inherit an IRA have to empty it by the end of the 10th year after the owner’s death, the IRS says. If the owner died on or after their required beginning date for RMDs, the heir also takes yearly withdrawals along the way, under IRS Publication 590-B. Spouses, the owner’s minor children, disabled or chronically ill heirs, and heirs no more than 10 years younger than the owner get more flexible options. The Boldin Planner’s inherited IRA module models those payout rules and the taxes that come with them.
That 10-year clock can push a large pre-tax IRA into an heir’s peak earning years. Roth conversions during your own retirement can shift some of that tax to you, at your bracket.
How Do You Avoid Probate?
Probate is the court process that validates a will, pays debts and hands out what’s left. You avoid it by giving each asset a way to pass straight to someone.
Assets that can skip probate:
- Accounts with a named beneficiary, such as IRAs, 401(k)s and life insurance
- Bank accounts with a payable-on-death (POD) designation
- Brokerage accounts with transfer-on-death (TOD) registration
- Property owned jointly with right of survivorship
- Anything titled in a living trust’s name
TOD registration lets securities pass straight to the person you name with no action from your executor, the SEC’s Investor.gov explains. State law governs these registrations, and brokerages decide whether to offer them. Many states also offer simpler procedures for small estates. Ask an estate attorney how your state handles both.
Debts get paid from the estate before heirs receive anything. Accounts with a named beneficiary skip probate, so in most states creditors can’t tap them to pay the estate’s debts.
Do You Need to Worry About Estate Taxes?
Most estates owe no federal estate tax. For 2026, the exemption is $15 million per person under IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32, and a married couple can shelter up to twice that with a portability election. The same rules let you give up to $19,000 a year to any one person without filing a gift tax return.
State taxes reach further. Some states tax estates far smaller than the federal exemption, and a few tax heirs directly. Where you live is a big factor in what your heirs owe in estate taxes.
Heirs also get a tax break on most inherited property. The basis of an inherited asset is its fair market value on the date of death, per the IRS. A house you bought for $150,000 and leave at $500,000 starts fresh at $500,000 for your heirs. A house you give away during your life keeps your original basis, under IRS Publication 551. That rule shapes the pros and cons of inheriting a house. If the house carries a reverse mortgage, heirs get up to 12 months, with HUD extensions, to repay the loan or sell.
How Do You Plan What You’ll Leave to Heirs?
Set a legacy target first, then test whether your spending plan supports it. The target can be a set amount, whatever is left, or nothing in particular.
The Boldin Planner lets you set a legacy goal and shows your projected estate value at your longevity age. A Maximum Spending withdrawal strategy holds that legacy amount aside and spends the rest. The Estate Planning section under My Plan keeps track of which documents you have and which you still need.
You can give while you’re alive, too. A few ways people do it:
- Pay for a grandchild’s education through a 529 plan, which carries its own tax and estate benefits
- Give to charity straight from an IRA after age 70½ with a qualified charitable distribution, which keeps the gift out of your taxable income
- Open a donor-advised fund to take a deduction now and choose charities later
- Fund life insurance or other ways to leave a financial legacy that don’t depend on what’s left in your accounts
The first of four questions about charitable giving in retirement is whether you can afford the gift without shortchanging your own plan. Run the gift as a scenario in the Planner and compare it with your baseline.
How Do You Make an Estate Plan?
You can write documents yourself, use an online service or hire an attorney. Simple situations can work with the first two. An attorney earns the fee in more complex cases. Think of a blended family, a business, property in several states, a family member with special needs or an estate near your state’s tax threshold.
Cost depends on which documents you need and where you live. A will and powers of attorney cost far less than a full trust package that includes retitling assets.
To find a lawyer, the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys lists members by location. The American College of Trust and Estate Counsel lists experienced estate lawyers who’ve been elected as fellows. Bring your account list and beneficiary forms to the first meeting.
How Often Do You Need to Update Your Estate Plan?
Look at your plan every few years and after any major change. Common triggers:
- Marriage, divorce or a partner’s death
- A birth, adoption or new grandchild
- A move to another state
- A large change in your assets, such as an inheritance or business sale
- A new account, especially one that needs a beneficiary named
- A change in health for you or the person you’ve named to act for you
Your executor can’t use a will no one can find. Not knowing where the original documents are is one of the common estate plan mistakes, so tell the people involved. A holiday visit is one natural time to start a money conversation with family. Teaching money skills in stages, from a first job to a first brokerage account, prepares heirs for what they’ll inherit.
Start with the checklist above and the forms you can update today. Then model your legacy goal in the Boldin Planner. If you’d like a professional to look at the whole picture, bring it to a free discovery session with Boldin Advisors.
Estate Planning Checklist FAQs
What are the most important estate planning documents?
Four documents carry most of the weight: a will, a durable power of attorney for finances, a health care proxy and current beneficiary forms. If you have only a will, the gap is incapacity. Without powers of attorney, your family may need a court to appoint someone before they can pay your bills or speak with your doctors.
Do I need a trust, or is a will enough?
Many retirees do fine with a will, since IRAs, 401(k)s and insurance already pass by beneficiary form. A trust adds the most when probate in your state is slow or costly, when you’d rather keep your estate out of court records, or when an heir needs someone to manage the money. An estate attorney can compare the two.
What happens if you die without a will?
Your state’s intestacy law decides who inherits, starting with a spouse and children in most states, and a court appoints someone to settle the estate. Accounts with named beneficiaries still go to those people. Without a will you also lose the chance to name a guardian for minor children or to leave anything to friends or charities.
Does a will override a beneficiary designation?
No, in most cases. The form on file with the account controls who receives an IRA, 401(k) or life insurance payout, even when a newer will says something different. That’s why an old form naming a former spouse or a parent who has died can send money to the wrong place. Check each form after any family change.
How often do you need to update your estate plan?
Pick a recurring date, such as tax season, to recheck beneficiary forms and your account list. Revisit the documents themselves after a marriage, divorce, death, new grandchild or move. State rules on wills and powers of attorney differ, so ask an attorney whether a move to a new state calls for new documents.
How much is the estate tax exemption in 2026?
For 2026, each person can leave up to $15 million free of federal estate tax, and the figure adjusts for inflation starting in 2027. The unused part of a deceased spouse’s exemption can pass to the survivor if the executor files an estate tax return to claim it. State estate and inheritance taxes often start at far lower amounts.
Can you do estate planning yourself?
Yes, for the simpler pieces. You can update beneficiary and transfer-on-death forms online, and many states publish free advance directive forms. Online will services handle straightforward wills. Bring in an attorney for trusts, a family member who receives government benefits, or any situation where a mistake would be hard to undo.
