Plan for the legacy you intend.
Estate planning is more than a will. I coordinate your accounts, beneficiaries, taxes, insurance and business around it. You create your documents yourself through Vanilla, with a lawyer available if you want one.
A plan that speaks for you, not a court that speaks over you.
Without a plan, the state's default rules pick your heirs and your children's guardian. Then the court process, called probate, plays out in public, on the court's timeline and at its cost.
A coordinated plan, documented and kept current with your accounts, directs your assets where you intend and already knows what to do when your life changes.
A complete plan, coordinated in one place.
From wills and trusts to healthcare directives, beneficiary designations, and the pieces most plans miss. You create the documents through Vanilla, the guided platform in your client portal, making every decision yourself, and I coordinate them with everything else in your plan.
Last Will & Testament
Decide how your assets are shared and who raises your children, rather than leaving it to your state's default rules.
Trust Planning
Understand where a trust would help, and what it asks of you, including retitling assets into it.
Powers of Attorney
Decide who handles financial and healthcare decisions if you cannot, and what authority they have.
Healthcare Directives
Make your medical wishes known, and give the people you choose the access they need to act on them.
Beneficiary Designations
Check that every account names the people you intend, and that the forms agree with your will and trusts.
Guardianship Planning
Decide who raises your children, and what guidance they would need, then put it in your documents.
Four steps to a plan that works.
- 01
Discover
We talk about your family, your business, and what you want your money to do. No documents needed yet.
- 02
Organize
I build a full balance sheet, including assets I do not manage, and gather your existing documents.
- 03
Visualize
You see how each asset would actually transfer, in a diagram instead of legal language.
- 04
Strategize
We fix what is missing or misaligned. You create or update documents through Vanilla, and an attorney is brought in where you want one.
Your business is probably your largest asset. Your estate plan should treat it that way.
Ownership alignment
Membership interests or shares assigned to your trust, and consistent with the operating or shareholder agreement.
Buy-sell agreements
Whether one exists, whether the valuation formula is current, and whether it is funded.
Timing around a sale
The best estate planning opportunities often have to happen before a letter of intent, while value is lower and before a deal is in motion. After closing, many options are gone.
Liquidity at death
Whether your family could pay taxes and expenses without a forced sale of the business.
Key person and continuity
Who runs it, signs checks, and makes decisions if you cannot.
Valuation for gifting
Gifts of business interests usually need a qualified appraisal.
The foundation of your plan.
A will directs who receives your assets, names guardians for your children, and appoints an executor to carry out your instructions. It is updated as your life changes: a marriage, a divorce, or a new child.
- Distribution of your assets, in your words
- Guardians named for minor children
- An executor to carry out your wishes
- A memo for sentimental personal items
More than distribution. A lasting legacy.
A trust lets a trustee manage your assets by your instructions. Where it fits, it can keep assets private and out of probate, and help if you become unable to act. Revocable trusts can be changed; irrevocable trusts are locked in and can carry different tax and protection treatment.
A trust only works if your assets are retitled into it. An unfunded trust, signed but never funded, is one of the most common gaps I find.
- Revocable and irrevocable structures
- Living trusts, and ones created in your will
- Charitable and special needs planning
Your voice, even when you cannot speak.
Powers of attorney let people you trust act for you if you cannot. A financial power of attorney covers bills, investments and business affairs; a medical power of attorney covers healthcare decisions. I help you think through who should serve.
- Agents you choose, not a court
- Stays in effect even if you become unable to act
- Authority and limits you define
Plan for your health, not just your wealth.
A living will spells out your wishes for treatment, and a healthcare power of attorney names who decides. A HIPAA release lets doctors share your records with the people you choose.
Once a child turns 18, parents lose automatic access to their medical information, so a HIPAA release and powers of attorney for college-age children are worth doing.
- Medical decisions in trusted hands
- Your end-of-life wishes in writing
- Records access when it counts
The right assets to the right people.
Retirement accounts and life insurance usually pass straight to the people named on the form, outside probate and whatever the will says. I review every designation so a name added years ago does not quietly override the plan you have today.
Most non-spouse heirs must empty an inherited IRA within 10 years, so the plan should consider who inherits pre-tax dollars and who inherits Roth dollars.
- Assets that pass outside probate
- Coordinated with your will and trusts
- Reviewed when life changes
Decide who raises your children.
Naming a guardian is one of the most personal decisions in a plan. I encourage open conversations with the people you are considering, then the decision goes into your documents. A court confirms the appointment, and clear written guidance helps it follow your choice.
- Your choice, not a stranger's
- Guidance that helps the court process
- Revisited as your family grows
The parts that decide whether a plan can actually be carried out.
Documents say where things should go. These decide whether they can get there without a forced sale or a scramble for cash.
- Cash for final expenses, debts, taxes, and administration
- Whether assets can transfer without forcing a sale
- Life insurance, sized to the need rather than a round number
- Potential federal and state estate or inheritance tax exposure
- Lifetime gifting, and what it costs you to give now
- Charitable bequests, donor-advised funds, and charitable trusts
- Concentrated or illiquid holdings, including real estate
- Business succession, buy-sell agreements, and key-person cover
- How retirement accounts distribute to the people who inherit them
- Which professionals need to be in the room, and when
In 2026, the federal exemption is $15M per person ($30M for a married couple) and no longer scheduled to drop. Plans drafted before mid-2025 may include formulas built around a sunset that did not happen, and are worth a review. Some states set their own, lower thresholds.
The pieces most plans leave out.
Without access, your family can be locked out of everything from photos to financial logins. I help you inventory your digital accounts and, where it fits, name a digital executor. I also help you put your final wishes in writing, from burial or cremation to the service, so your family is not left guessing.
- A clear inventory of digital accounts
- A digital executor where it helps
- Final wishes documented in advance
A coordinated roadmap, not a set of documents.
You create the documents through Vanilla. What you also get is everything around them, organized so the two agree.
- A summary of your current estate structure
- An inventory of documents, accounts, beneficiaries, and how things are owned
- A plain explanation of how each major asset is expected to transfer
- An assessment of whether there is cash where it will be needed
- A list of what is missing, outdated, or contradicting something else
- The questions worth raising with an attorney, where one is needed
- One action list across you, me, and where needed your attorney, accountant, and insurance professional
- A checklist of what to do, in priority order
- A place for the documents and the contacts, so your family can find them
- When to review it again
Before we start.
Do I need an estate plan if I do not consider myself wealthy?
Estate planning is mostly about people, not size. Who raises your children, who decides if you cannot, who receives what, and how easily your family can act. Those questions apply at any level of wealth.
Is a will enough?
Sometimes, often not. A will does not cover incapacity, and it does not control accounts that pass by beneficiary form or by how they are owned. Whether a will alone is enough for you depends on what you own and how it is titled, and that is part of what the review works out.
Does my state have an estate or inheritance tax?
It depends where you live, and where you own property. Some states tax the estate, some tax the people who inherit, and many tax neither. Real estate in another state can bring that state's rules in too. I map where your assets sit and which rules apply, alongside the federal exemption of $15M per person.
Do I need a trust?
It depends. A will alone works for many families. Common reasons to consider a trust are privacy, planning for incapacity, minor children, real estate in another state, which can otherwise need its own probate there, and business interests. A trust only does its job if your assets are retitled into it, and it does not remove the tax filings.
What happens to my business if I die or become disabled?
Without a plan, it can stall: no one may have the authority to sign, pay people or make decisions, and your family may face a forced sale to raise cash. The plan names who steps in, aligns your ownership with your trust and your company agreements, checks the buy-sell agreement and how it is funded, and looks at whether there is cash for taxes and expenses.
Why do beneficiary designations matter so much?
Because they usually decide who receives the account, whatever the will says. A form completed before a marriage, a divorce, or a child can quietly override the plan you thought you had. That is why they are reviewed alongside the documents, not after.
I already have an estate attorney. Do I still need this?
Yes, and it works alongside them. Your attorney drafts and advises on the law. I handle the financial side: what you own, how it is titled, who is named on each account, whether there is cash where it is needed, and keeping all of it consistent with the documents as life changes.
How often should an estate plan be updated?
Every year as part of your review, and sooner after a marriage, a divorce, a birth, a death, a move to another state, a business change, or a meaningful change in what you own. Laws change too, which is its own reason to revisit.
Who creates the documents?
You do, through Vanilla Document Builder, a guided platform in your client portal. You choose the package, answer every question and make every decision; neither Vanilla nor I can give legal advice or act as your lawyer. A lawyer does not review the documents unless you engage one. If you want custom documents, a review before you sign, or legal advice, you can hire an attorney directly, including through the Vanilla Attorney Network, and I can work alongside them with your consent. My part is the financial side: what you own, how it is held, who is named on it, whether there is cash where it will be needed, and keeping all of it consistent with your documents as life changes.
How estate documents are createdWhat does this cost?
There is no additional fee. Document creation through Vanilla is included in my Wealth Planning, Wealth Planning & Business Advisory and Private Wealth Management relationships. A Financial Plan includes an estate planning review, but not document creation through Vanilla. Estate planning is not offered on its own, or with Investment Management alone.
See Fees
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Bring your assets, beneficiaries, documents, and financial strategy together in one coordinated roadmap. A complimentary 30 minute conversation, relaxed and with nothing to prepare. I am here to listen, not to sell.
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