From Tax Season to Legacy Planning: Where to Start with an Estate Plan
Now that tax season has come and gone, it’s a good time to revisit any estate planning goals you may have set for 2026. Chances are, you may have set New Year’s resolutions about going to the gym, eating healthier food, or saving more money. Equally important, though easier to put off than more immediately gratifying resolutions, is getting your estate plan in order.
A functional, well‑structured estate plan can play an important role in helping families organize their wishes. Without one, families may face unnecessary conflict, loss of control over outcomes, court involvement through probate, privacy concerns, guardianship uncertainty, and potential estate taxes that can reduce what you pass on. In this article, we outline the most essential and accessible first steps you can take to start making meaningful progress on your estate plan.
Estate and Trust Administrators Guide
One helpful early step is to gather key information, which may include completing our “Savant Estate and Trust Administrators Guide,” which can serve as a central place to document the details your beneficiaries will need to manage your estate. Within the guide, you can document the location of your most recent estate documents, key contacts such as executors, trustees, accountants, and insurance professionals, as well as funeral preferences, guardianship details, usernames and passwords to close out digital accounts, debts, specific bequests, and other essential information.
The “Savant Estate and Trust Administrators Guide,” or a similar self‑created document, can provide a practical foundation for advisors and loved ones to navigate estate administration after death or incapacity, reducing confusion around who to contact, when, and for what.
Ethical Will
The next step you might want to consider in building a strong estate planning foundation is more personal: creating an ethical will. An ethical will is not a legal document. Instead, it is like a letter to your loved ones and heirs that articulates the ethical values you wish to pass on to the next generation. Unlike powers of attorney documents or revocable trusts, which are relatively recent inventions, ethical wills are commonly discussed as having long historical roots and reflect their deep humanity and timelessness. They can capture what many of the technical documents cannot, which is the “why” behind your wishes, as well as your beliefs and hopes. Ethical wills can be a great way for anyone to pass along time-won wisdom.
Medical Power of Attorney and Living Will
Once you’ve completed a comprehensive inventory and an ethical will, the next step is addressing key legal documents. Chief among these “advance directives” are a medical power of attorney and a living will. A medical power of attorney designates someone you trust to make healthcare decisions if you become unable to do so. By completing this simple document, you can help reduce ambiguity over who has the final say in your medical decision-making, subject to applicable state law. This allows medical providers to share information and speak directly with someone you trust to make informed decisions. Depending on your state of domicile, you may also empower your agent with continuing post-mortem authority over the disposition of remains. If your state power of attorney for healthcare does not offer such authority, perhaps your state has a specific power of attorney covering such matters.
A living will outlines your wishes regarding life‑sustaining treatment and may help clarify preferences around end-of-life care. It serves as your voice when you’re no longer able to speak for yourself. By clearly stating your preferences in advance, these documents can help ease the emotional burden on loved ones, allowing them to honor your wishes without having to guess.
Starting with advance directives can give your family clarity. These documents are relatively simple and affordable to put in place. Once completed, be sure to share them with your physician and store them safely where your loved ones can easily find them.
Power of Attorney for Property
While a medical power of attorney allows someone to make medical decisions on your behalf and speak with medical professionals during incapacity, the power of attorney for property allows a named “agent” to make decisions on your behalf regarding your financial and legal affairs.
This can include, depending on the authority granted and applicable law, filing and paying your taxes, managing retirement accounts, paying your mortgage, signing checks, and similar administrative tasks. These powers offer many benefits, from preventing damage levied by scammers to paying bills that would otherwise go overdue. Like the advance directives, a power of attorney for property document can provide the gift of clarity while remaining quite affordable and minimally invasive.
Last Will and Testament
Once you’ve worked through these foundational legal and non‑legal documents, a last will and testament or a trust can help move you closer to completing your estate plan. Completing a will places you in the upper echelon of estate-conscious Americans because research shows less than a quarter of American adults have one. If you have children under 18, a will is the only place you can name a legal guardian for your children, so keep that in mind.
Wills provide clear instructions for managing simpler estates, while a revocable living trust operates as a separate legal entity that holds your assets, helps avoid probate, and offers greater control over how assets are distributed after death. With trusts, it is critical that your assets, including real estate, are titled or made payable to the trust to make the trust work as designed. After addressing the earlier planning steps, consider whether a last will or trust best fits your situation and complete it according to your state’s specific and required formalities.
Next Steps
Building a complete estate plan involves many steps, especially when starting from scratch. While these various steps may feel unfamiliar and overwhelming, they can help you pursue financial wellness and clarity for you and your loved ones for years to come. If you’re a current Savant client or interested in becoming one, our Advisory and Wealth Transfer teams can help you navigate the complex financial and planning issues associated with estate planning and wealth transfer.
This is intended for informational purposes only. You should not assume that any discussion or information contained in this document serves as the receipt of, or as a substitute for, personalized investment or tax advice from Savant. Please consult your investment or tax professional regarding your unique situation.
Michael T. Cyrs
Senior Director of Wealth Transfer
JD, CFP®, MBA