Yes, everyone needs a will, a trust, or both. Whether your estate is modest or substantial, a will or trust ensures that your wishes are honored, your loved ones are protected, and the people and causes you care about are provided for after you are gone.

A properly prepared trust can also help avoid probate, which is a lengthy, public, and often expensive court process that becomes necessary when there is no legally valid estate plan in place for distributing your accounts and property after your death. A properly funded trust can save your family significant time, expense, and stress by keeping your estate out of the public probate process.

Beyond simply deciding who gets what, a well-drafted estate plan addresses a number of situations that many people do not consider until it is too late.

Almost everyone has at least one account or digital presence online. Think about all your photos stored in the cloud, as well as your emails, social media profiles, online shopping accounts, online payment platforms (e.g., Venmo or PayPal), and online banking accounts. Who do you want to have access to them? Do you want the accounts deleted or transferred to someone else? What happens if the account holds money? How do your loved ones access that money?

An estate plan ensures that your online photos, records, and accounts do not get lost or locked.

Nursing homes can cost thousands of dollars per month. Medicaid is a cost-sharing government program that supplements the costs of a person’s long-term care so long as they meet certain asset and income requirements. However, the state Medicaid agency might try—and is legally allowed—to recoup the money spent on your care from certain accounts and property you own at the time of your death. A comprehensive estate plan may be able to prevent or limit the state from recovering these costs from your bank accounts or, under certain circumstances and only in some states, forcing your loved ones to sell your family home to pay back your nursing home care costs.

Inherited retirement accounts — such as IRAs and 401(k)s — can carry a significant income tax burden for your beneficiaries, depending on the type of account and the beneficiary’s tax bracket. Planning ahead can help reduce that burden. Including your retirement accounts in your estate plan allows you to structure distributions in a way that protects your nest egg and minimizes the tax impact on those who inherit it.

Estate planning can help ensure that your money and property are distributed in accordance with your wishes after your death. For example, if you want to provide not only for your surviving spouse but also for your children from a prior relationship, your estate plan can help you do that. It can also protect your beneficiaries’ inheritances from claims by divorcing spouses or creditors, pending lawsuits, or exposure to financial predators. With a plan, your money and property are also less likely to be lost to your beneficiaries’ mismanagement or frivolous spending—a surprisingly common outcome when no safeguards are in place. In fact, studies show that 70 percent of family wealth is depleted within the two following generations and 90 percent within three generations. ¹ With thoughtful planning, you can avoid becoming part of that statistic.

An estate plan can also help ensure that your values are passed to the next generation and that your wishes are legally documented in a way that everyone understands. Discussing your wishes with your loved ones will not make your plan for the future legally enforceable. The only way to ensure that your goals are carried out is to work with an experienced estate planning attorney to create a will or trust. Do not put off this important step. Taking the time to plan will save your loved ones stress, money, and heartache in the future. It is truly a gift to them

At White Law Practice, we work with individuals and families in Georgia and Michigan to create estate plans that are clear and built around your goals. Contact us today to schedule a consultation.

¹ How real is the third-generation curse, and how can financial advisors tackle it? CFA Institute (Feb. 6, 2025), https://www.cfainstitute.org/insights/articles/third-generation-wealth-curse-advisor-solutions.