Learn the basics of estate planning, so you can make your will package work for you.
Understanding the basics is the best way to take control of your future.
We’re here to guide and support you as you move through the process of creating your will. We want you to feel knowledgeable and empowered to make decisions about what’s best for you and your family. To answer common questions, our team has curated a host of valuable resources, including articles and videos to help you educate yourself and understand the basic ins and outs of estate planning.
Glossary of Key Terms
Visit our extended Glossary for more in-depth terms.
Advance Directive for Health Care
Allows you to make decisions now about how you want to be treated if some day you become terminally ill or injured, or permanently unconscious. This is sometimes referred to as a “living will.” This document also allows you to appoint a trusted person to represent you if you can’t make health care decisions for yourself. This person is called a “health care proxy” or “health care power of attorney.”
Agent
The person who receives, or holds, the power described in a power of attorney. Your agent manages your finances, property, or health care.
Children’s Trust
A trust for the benefit and support of children. It comes into effect only if both parents die before the youngest child reaches 25. It is managed by a trustee until children reach an age chosen by their parents—usually 30 or 35.
Memorandum of Personal Property
An optional document you can attach to your will that allows you to make gifts of tangible personal property—things like jewelry, furniture, collectibles, or electronics.
A parent appoints someone to take care of their child in the event they die or become unable to care for their child while she/he is still a minor (under 18). Guardians must always act in the child’s best interest regarding their support, care, education, health, and general welfare.
Parental Appointment of Guardian
Personal Representative
This is the person you place in charge of settling your estate after your death. In some states, this person is referred to as an “executor.”
Power of Attorney
A power of attorney is a legal document a person signs to give another person, typically a spouse, partner, family member, or other trusted person, the authority or “power” to act on their behalf. It’s extremely valuable in situations where you are unable to handle your own affairs due to illness, disability, long-term stint outside the country (e.g. deployment), etc.
An individual person or firm given control of the administration of assets in a trust for the benefit of a third party (called a “beneficiary”).
Trustee
Will
The foundational document of an estate plan. A well-designed will reads like a set of instructions. It identifies the creator of the will, their family, who should manage their affairs when they die, and how they want their assets distributed.
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