You have spent decades building the income side of your retirement. The other half—what happens to your money, your home, and your spouse when one of you is not here to manage it—is usually held together by a will written years ago and beneficiary forms nobody has reviewed since the kids were small. We close that gap.
Most pre-retirees we meet have done the hard part. They have saved well. They have built a portfolio that survived the last three downturns. They have a 401(k), an IRA, perhaps a Roth, a brokerage account, or a small pension.
Then we ask one question:
If one of you went first tomorrow, would the other know what to do—and would the IRS take more than necessary on the way through?
That is where the room goes quiet.
Estate planning is not a separate legal chore that happens after the retirement plan. It is the second half of the same conversation. When the income plan and estate plan do not talk to each other, households leak money, clarity, and confidence at the exact moment a surviving spouse can least afford to lose any of the three.
This is not a problem of intent. It is a problem of coordination.
Estate planning by the numbers
Only 22–34% of adults currently have an actionable estate plan in place.
Almost everyone wants it. Roughly two-thirds do not have it. The reason is usually the same: the financial advisor manages the portfolio, the attorney drafts the documents, the CPA files the return, and none of the three sees the whole household at once. Documents drift out of date, beneficiary forms contradict the will, and the strategy intended to protect a surviving spouse quietly stops working.
Coordination is the work. That is what we do here.
What pre-retirees want from estate-planning guidance
1. Beneficiary and tax-efficient distribution help
41% of clients want professional help with beneficiary designations and tax-efficient asset distribution.
Beneficiary forms override wills. Most households have at least one form that has not been updated since a job change, divorce, marriage, or death in the family. We review every form alongside your will and trust documents so the three tell the same story.
2. Plain-English education on what you actually need
37% want education on the basics—wills versus trusts, what each does, and who needs what.
You should not need a law degree to understand your own estate. We walk through the actual decisions—will, revocable living trust, powers of attorney, and healthcare directives—in language that respects your time and intelligence. You decide. We make sure the decision is informed.
3. Proactive reminders when life changes
33% want their advisor to remind them when documents need to be updated.
Most estate documents were not wrong when written. They became wrong because life moved: a child married, a parent passed, property was sold, tax law changed, or the household moved to another state. We track those triggers so you do not have to remember which one applies to which document.
4. Coordination with your attorney
35% want a full suite—drafting services or close collaboration between their advisor and estate attorney.
We do not draft your documents. Your estate attorney does that work, and well. Our role is to sit in the middle. We bring the household financial picture, Roth conversion strategy, Social Security timing, income floor, beneficiary forms, and tax projections to the attorney's desk so the documents reflect the plan you actually have. If you do not have an attorney, we can introduce you to professionals we trust.
Why a will may not be the finish line
A decade ago, “estate plan” often meant “will.” That is no longer the default for many households we serve.
A will tells a probate court how you want your estate distributed. Probate is public, lengthy, and expensive in many states. A revocable living trust, properly funded, generally bypasses probate. For many households with a home, children, retirement accounts, and meaningful assets, a revocable living trust may be closer to standard practice than optional planning.
“Properly funded” is doing the heavy lifting in that sentence. A trust that exists on paper but does not own the assets it was intended to hold is one of the most common failures we see. Trust funding is part of what we coordinate.
What coordinated estate planning looks like
Our role is not to replace your attorney or CPA. It is to make sure all three of us are looking at the same picture.
- Document inventory. Wills, trusts, powers of attorney, healthcare directives, and every beneficiary designation across every account—read together.
- Beneficiary alignment. We confirm that every named beneficiary still reflects your intent and coordinates with the will or trust.
- Trust funding review. If you have a trust, we confirm what the trust actually owns—not what it was supposed to own.
- Tax coordination. Roth conversion timing, step-up in basis at death, state estate-tax exposure, and IRA inheritance rules for adult children are considered before documents are finalized.
- Attorney handoff. We brief your attorney with a one-page financial picture so the meeting starts where it should.
- Spouse alignment. Both of you are in the room, understand the plan, and know what to do if the other is not there.
- Life-event triggers. We track events that should prompt a document update and tell you when one occurs.
We do not sell estate documents, and we do not draft them. We coordinate your existing professionals around a household plan that reflects what you and your spouse want—and make sure the documents follow.
Statistics cited in the source article: Vanilla Estate Planning Statistics & Facts; D.A. Davidson; Slater Elder Law; eMoney Advisor; and WealthManagement.com.