Estate Planning After a Major Life Event: A Checklist

Estate planning is one of those tasks that’s easy to postpone—until a health scare, a growing family, or a milestone birthday makes the stakes impossible to ignore. The good news is that a solid estate plan doesn’t have to be complicated to start. It does, however, need to be complete, and it’s easy to leave gaps without realizing it.

Whether you’re building a plan for the first time or reviewing one that hasn’t been touched in years, this checklist covers the documents and decisions every plan should address.

The Core Documents Everyone Needs

At a minimum, a complete estate plan addresses what happens to your assets, who makes decisions if you can’t, and who cares for any minor children.

• A will naming an executor and, if applicable, guardians for minor children

• A revocable living trust, if you want to avoid probate or keep your affairs private

• A durable power of attorney for financial decisions

• A healthcare power of attorney and advance directive

• Beneficiary designations reviewed on retirement accounts and life insurance policies

Life Events That Should Trigger a Review

An estate plan isn’t a one-time project. Marriage, divorce, the birth of a child, a significant change in assets, or the death of a named executor or beneficiary are all reasons to revisit your documents. Plans drafted a decade ago rarely reflect today’s family structure or asset picture.

Common Gaps We See

Even thoughtfully drafted plans often miss a few details: outdated beneficiary designations that override the will, no plan for digital assets and online accounts, and powers of attorney that were never properly executed under current state formalities. Business owners in particular often overlook succession planning—who runs the company, and who owns it, if something happens to them.

Getting Started

The hardest part of estate planning is usually just beginning. Gathering a rough list of your assets, thinking through who you’d want making decisions on your behalf, and identifying guardians for any children are useful first steps before your first meeting with an attorney.

An estate plan built around your actual life—not a generic template—is the best protection you can give your family. Ashford & Rowe’s estate planning attorneys can walk through this checklist with you and build a plan tailored to your circumstances; contact us to schedule a consultation.