Building Your Estate Plan: A Will, Trust, and Document Workbook

An estate plan is a set of decisions captured in coordinated documents. This hands-on course walks you through making those decisions and assembling the documents, ending with a complete binder you can take to an attorney for final review and signing or finalize on your own when appropriate. By the end of this course you will have a written summary of decisions, a will draft, a trust decision memo, a beneficiary alignment list, and a stored document binder including supporting paperwork and contacts. What you will learn: - How to inventory assets and beneficiaries as the starting point for any plan - How to choose guardians for minor children including primary, backup, and standby - How to choose an executor and a successor executor - How to decide between a simple will and a will plus a revocable trust - How to align beneficiary designations on retirement accounts, life insurance, and transfer-on-death registrations - How to handle digital assets, pets, and sentimental items that wills often miss - How to store documents and inform the right people without compromising privacy The course is structured as a workbook. Each module presents one set of decisions, provides templates, walks through a filled example, and guides you to complete your own version. This course is written for adults who want to build a real plan rather than continue intending to. By the end you will have replaced unease about not having a will with a complete binder of decisions and documents, ready for signing, and you will know what reviews and updates will keep the plan effective over time.