Do I need an estate plan if I am not wealthy? Yes. Here is the starter kit.

The phrase estate plan conjures marble foyers and family lawyers on retainer. So normal families skip it, assuming it is for someone else. Then something happens, and state law and the courts start making decisions the family thought were theirs to make: slowly, publicly, and exactly how nobody wanted.

The basics every household needs

1. A will: who gets what, and crucially, who raises your kids. The guardian question alone is one most couples have never written down.
2. A healthcare directive: who decides for you if you cannot.
3. A power of attorney: who handles your finances if you cannot.
4. A beneficiary review: because insurance and retirement account forms override the will, and outdated forms pay exactly who they say.

When trusts enter the picture

Minor children, blended families, larger estates, or wanting control over how heirs receive money: that is trust territory, and it is attorney work. Not every family needs one. Every family benefits from knowing whether they do.

The part almost nobody checks

Most families have some of the pieces: a policy here, an old 401k there, maybe a will from a decade ago. What almost nobody checks is whether the pieces agree with each other. The will says one thing, a beneficiary form says another, and the conflict only surfaces when it is too late to fix. A coordinated review, with the estate attorneys we partner with handling the documents, makes sure every piece points the same direction. That is the whole job: not marble foyers, just documents that agree, and a family spared the chaos.