If you pass away without an estate plan, state law determines how your assets are distributed. This may exclude people you intended to include, create delays or added costs, and leave decisions up to the court.

Yes. Estate planning isn't just about age or wealth. It can help ensure someone can manage finances if you're incapacitated, your healthcare wishes are respected, and loved ones aren't left guessing in an emergency.

Both are common estate planning tools, and the right choice depends on your situation and goals. The platform guides you through questions that produce a best-fit recommendation based on your answers — but the decision is ultimately yours. A will explains who receives your assets and names guardians for minor children; it usually goes through probate but is easier to set up. A trust can manage assets during your lifetime, avoid probate, and give you more privacy and control over how and when assets are distributed.

Probate is a court process after someone dies, used to validate a will and distribute assets. It can be time-consuming, expensive, and public. Recent studies show the average length of probate is 532 days, at a cost of 3–8% of total assets.

It's the most common trust used in estate planning. You place assets into the trust during your lifetime, stay in control of them while you're alive, and have them managed or distributed according to your instructions if you become incapacitated or pass away. It can be changed or revoked, helps avoid probate, and keeps your affairs private. Other types — irrevocable, charitable, dynasty — are typically used for more complex situations and often call for an estate planning attorney.

The platform guides you through questions that suggest a best fit based on your answers, and the choice is yours. Note that only married couples, domestic partners, and civil union partners can create a joint trust within the platform.

Funding means transferring assets into the trust so it can control and distribute them — retitling non-retirement brokerage accounts, listing the trust as a beneficiary, or using a deed to move real estate in. Without proper funding, a trust may exist on paper but won't actually control your assets. Commonly funded assets include real estate, bank accounts, brokerage accounts, personal property, and business interests.

A pour-over will works alongside your trust. It directs that any assets not already in the trust at death be transferred into it — a safety net so everything follows the same plan.

It's best to update your documents if you can. For documents made with the platform, if you're unable to update them, that beneficiary's portion is distributed equally to their surviving descendants (per stirpes). If there are no surviving descendants, distributions go to the surviving beneficiaries in the proportions you specified (pro rata).

Yes — you're encouraged to update your plan as life changes. A good rule of thumb is every 3–5 years, or after any major life event: marriage, divorce, birth or adoption of a child, significant changes in assets, or moving to a new state.

Your documents are stored securely using advanced encryption and can only be accessed by authorized individuals. You can share access with people you trust, and revoke that access at any time.

Yes. You can create either one on its own, free, without starting a full plan. Create yours here.

No. PlanLegit provides self-help legal forms and educational resources. It does not provide legal advice and is not a law firm, and no attorney-client relationship is created by using the platform. You represent yourself, and you are responsible for reviewing and approving your own documents before signing. Any fee charged is an administrative fee for access to the software and related support, not a fee for legal services.

A Coordinator gives you education and platform guidance: explaining terms, showing you how the process works, and keeping you moving. Coordinators do not give legal advice, interpret the law, or make choices for you — every decision about your plan is yours.

Chris Beckley of is your coordinator and provides education and platform guidance — not legal advice — and every decision about your plan stays yours.

Yes. Both documents are free, no credit card is requested, and there is no recurring or renewal charge.

They are Attorney Approved Documents, available in all 50 states, produced through a third-party software provider. You answer the questions, the platform builds your document, and signing instructions come with it.

Your details create your PlanLegit account and are shared with your Coordinator, who may reach out to see whether you need help finishing. We do not sell your information.

No. These two documents cover who acts for you while you are alive but unable to act for yourself. They do not decide what happens to your property after death.