Free Estate Planning Resources
Plain-English guides to help you understand your estate plan, ask better questions, and protect the people you love.
Estate planning can feel complicated. It doesn't have to.
Claim My Legacy™ created these complimentary guides to help families understand some of the most common estate planning questions in clear, everyday language.
No legal jargon. No scare tactics. Just useful information to help you understand what you have, how it may work, and what questions may be worth asking.
[Browse the Free Guides ↓]
Good estate planning starts with understanding your options.
Claim My Legacy provides practical guides, worksheets, checklists, and educational resources designed to help you better understand estate planning and take the next step with confidence.
Whether you're beginning your estate plan, reviewing one you already have, organizing important information, or making sure your trust and assets work together, these resources are here to help.
Download what you need. Take your time. And if a resource raises questions about your own situation, we're here to help.
Start With the Question That's on Your Mind
You don't need to read everything.
Choose the question that sounds most like the one you've been asking yourself.
What Happens If I Become Incapacitated?™
Who handles things if you're still here, but you can no longer manage everything yourself?
This guide explains why estate planning isn't only about what happens after death. Learn how incapacity planning can help make sure the right people have the authority they may need when you need them.
Your Signature Dies With You™
What happens when the person who always handled everything is no longer here to sign?
This guide explores a simple but often overlooked estate planning reality: after death, someone else may need legal authority to handle property, accounts and unfinished financial matters.
Do I Need a Trust If I'm Not Rich?™
Trusts aren't only about how much you have. They're about what you want to happen.
This guide takes a practical look at what a living trust actually does, who may benefit from one, when a simpler plan may be enough, and why the better question isn't, “Am I rich enough for a trust?”
What Happens If My Estate Plan Has a Missing Piece?™
An estate plan doesn't have to be completely wrong for one missing piece to matter.
Your documents, people, assets, ownership, beneficiary designations and instructions need to work together. This guide helps you look for gaps without assuming something is wrong.
Is My Estate Plan Still Up to Date?™
Your estate plan may have been right when you created it. Is it still right today?
Marriage, divorce, new property, changing relationships, new accounts and simply the passage of time can affect an estate plan. This guide helps you identify what may deserve another look.
What Happens to My Home When I Die?™
For many families, the home is both their largest asset and one of the things they care most about protecting.
Learn how ownership, deeds, beneficiary arrangements, trusts and other planning decisions can affect what happens to a home after death.
Family Legacy Resources
Will My Family Have to Go Through Probate?™
Probate is a process. The important question is which of your assets may need it.
Learn what probate is, why some assets may require it while others may not, how wills and trusts fit into the picture, and what to look at in your own estate plan.
Have Questions About Your Own Estate Plan?
Complimentary Family Legacy Review™
Reading about estate planning is useful.
Eventually, though, the question becomes:
What does all of this mean for my family?
During a complimentary 60-minute Family Legacy Review™, we'll help you take a practical look at your current situation.
We can help you identify:
- What you already have in place
- What you own and how important assets are currently arranged
- Whether there are questions worth answering
- Whether anything appears to deserve another look
Then you decide what, if anything, you want to do next.
No assumptions. No scare tactics. No pressure.
Not Sure Which Guide to Start With?
That's okay.
You don't need to become an estate planning expert. You simply need to understand enough to know what questions are worth asking.
Start with whichever question feels most relevant to your family today.
And if reading one of these guides raises another question, that's exactly what they're designed to do.
TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR LEGACY
A Plain-English Introduction to Estate Planning
Estate planning doesn't have to be complicated. Take Control of Your Legacy™ helps you understand what can happen when no plan is in place, the difference between a will and a living trust, how probate can affect your family, and why simply creating documents may not be enough.
You'll also learn how beneficiary designations, trust funding, life insurance, and other pieces of your estate plan work together, and why the real goal isn't just to own documents. It's to create a plan your family can actually use.
No legal jargon. No pressure. Just information to help you understand your options and decide what makes sense for your family.
Ready to go one step further?
Learn with Take Control of Your Legacy™ → then take action with 8 Steps to Protecting the People You Love™.
8 Steps to Protecting the People You Love™
A Simple, Practical Guide to Getting Your Estate Plan Started and Finished
Estate planning can feel overwhelming when you don't know where to begin. This interactive workbook breaks the process into eight practical steps to help you organize your thoughts, identify the decisions that matter, and move forward with greater confidence.
Inside you'll work through:
- What you own and what matters most
- Who you want to protect
- The people you trust to help
- Important estate planning decisions
- What still needs to be completed
Estate Planning Guides & Checklist
Practical tools to help you organize your information and prepare for important estate planning decisions.
These checklists and worksheets are designed to help you gather what you already know, identify what you may still need, and make your estate planning conversations more productive.
Use what helps. Skip what doesn't apply. You don't have to figure everything out before getting started.
Estate Planning Document Checklist™
What documents do you already have, and what might still need attention?
Use this simple checklist to organize the estate planning documents you already have and identify documents or information you may want to locate, review, or discuss.
It can help you take inventory of items such as wills, trusts, powers of attorney, health care documents, beneficiary information, property records, and other important planning documents.
You don't need to have everything. Start with what you have.
Trust Funding Resources
Having a trust is one step. Making sure your assets and your trust work together is another.
These resources can help you review how important assets are currently owned, identify questions worth asking, and better understand whether additional trust funding steps may be appropriate.
No assumptions that something is wrong. The goal is simply to understand what you have and how it is currently arranged.
Trust Funding Review™ Worksheet
Already have a living trust? This fillable worksheet helps you review how your assets are currently owned, identify possible funding gaps, and organize questions that may deserve a closer look.
Use it to review your real estate, bank accounts, investments, retirement accounts, life insurance, vehicles, and other property in one place.
No assumptions. No scare tactics. Just a practical way to better understand whether your trust and your assets are working together as intended.
Trust Funding Assistance System™
Need help putting your trust funding into action?
The Claim My Legacy™ Trust Funding Assistance System™ provides a practical, step-by-step process for reviewing assets, gathering what may be needed, submitting requests, and verifying that important funding steps have been completed.
DISCOVER → REVIEW → REQUEST → SUBMIT → VERIFY → COMPLETE
This is especially helpful if you already have a living trust but aren't sure what needs to happen next to help make sure your assets and your trust are working together as intended.
Client Forms & Worksheets
Practical tools to help you organize information and prepare for the next step.
These worksheets and forms are designed to make estate planning easier to work through. Use them to gather important information, organize your thoughts, and prepare for conversations about your estate plan.
Download what is useful, complete it at your own pace, and keep it with your estate planning records.
My First Three Steps™
A simple action guide to help you get started.
Estate planning can feel overwhelming when you try to tackle everything at once. My First Three Steps™ helps you focus on three practical actions: decide what matters most, organize the information your family may need, and identify the next step you want to take.
Use this fillable worksheet on your computer or print it and complete it by hand.
You don't need to do everything at once. You just need to know your next step.
Family Asset Inventory™
Help your family know what you own and where to find it.
This fillable worksheet gives you one organized place to record your real estate, bank accounts, investments, retirement accounts, life insurance, business interests, vehicles, valuable property, liabilities and other important assets.
You don't need to complete everything at once. Start with what you know, update it as things change, and keep the completed inventory somewhere secure.
Personal Health Planner
Keep the information you and your family may need organized in one easy place.
This complimentary 14-page planner gives you a simple place to organize your emergency contacts, medical history, medications, doctors, insurance information, appointments, hospitalizations, test results and other important health information.
It can also make things easier for the people you love if they ever need to help manage your care. Download the Claim My Legacy Personal Health Planner now.