Estate planning checklist: everything to organise, in order

Estate planning is the work of deciding, in advance, what happens to your money, your property and your responsibilities when you die or can no longer manage them yourself. It is not only for the wealthy. If you own anything, have anyone who depends on you, or hold an opinion about your own medical care, you have an estate worth planning.

A good plan does two things: it makes sure your wishes are followed, and it spares your family from confusion, delay and conflict at the worst possible time. This checklist covers every piece, and you can work through it one item at a time.

Foundational documents

• A last will and testament with a named executor

• A living will (advance directive) for your medical wishes

• Financial power of attorney

• Healthcare power of attorney, naming a proxy

• A living trust, if it suits your assets and you want to avoid probate

Financial

• A full list of assets: accounts, property, investments, insurance

• Up-to-date beneficiary nominations (these often override your will)

• A record of debts, loans and recurring payments

• Tax records and your accountant’s details

Family and care

• Guardians named for any minor children

• Provision for any dependants with special needs

• Instructions for pets

Digital and final wishes

• Your digital assets and accounts, and who may manage them

• Your funeral and final wishes

• A document locator telling your family where everything is kept

• A letter of intent, and the personal messages you want to leave

If the full list feels like a lot, these are the documents almost everyone needs:

• Will: directs your property and names your executor and guardians.

• Living will: records your medical wishes if you cannot speak.

• Powers of attorney: one for finances, one for healthcare, for while you are alive but unable to act.

• Beneficiary nominations: on insurance and retirement accounts.

• Letter of intent: informal guidance for your executor and family, including the reasoning a will cannot hold.

• Not having a plan at all. Most adults do not, leaving the decisions to the courts.

• Out-of-date beneficiaries. An old form can send assets to an ex-spouse, overriding your will.

• Forgetting digital assets. Accounts, photos and crypto are routinely lost.

• Naming the wrong executor. Pick for trustworthiness and organisation, not seniority.

• Telling no one. A plan nobody can find is no plan at all.

• Never updating it. Life changes; your plan should too.

Review your plan after any major life event: marriage or divorce, a new child or grandchild, a death in the family, a significant change in assets, a move to a new state or country, or a change in your health. Even with no big changes, revisit it every three to five years to keep it current.

An estate plan is a careful set of instructions for your assets. It is one of the most responsible things you can do for the people you love. But every document in it shares the same limit: it can pass on what you owned, and almost nothing of who you were.

That is the part Afterlife AI preserves. Alongside your plan, you build a private Persona that holds your stories, values, reasoning and messages, captured while you are here to shape them. It is consent-first, encrypted and governed by Executor Lock. Your estate plan settles the estate. Your Persona passes on the person. See the full end-of-life plan to bring both together.