WHAT WOULD YOU WANT TO HAPPEN IF YOU DIED TOMORROW?

If you have made a troubling realization or two after considering the above questions, the more immediate issue might be what you do not want to happen. The top priority is probably the potential situation you have identified, and how to correct it.  Frequently, an easy solution will suggest itself simply as a result of thinking through the problem.  (If not, be smart and see an attorney experienced in estate planning.  He or she has most likely dealt with many situations much like yours.) 

Some peoples' values, wishes and survivors' needs, however, really are very simple.  So, too, should be their estate plans--perhaps just a two-page will saying, for example, "Everything to my three children, in equal shares."  Other people have various contingencies to plan for.  Some form of charitable contribution--during life or at death--might be part of their plans.  There might be a need for life insurance.  Many want to keep one or more "strings attached" to payments made to their chosen beneficiaries.  These strings come in infinite varieties, but almost always, keeping strings attached requires a trust. (Trusts are examined in detail in other tutorials.)

A trust document can be drafted to set forth a personalized combination of specific instructions, with or without discretionary judgments allowed to your trustee, so that money is given to whom you want, when, and for the purposes you specify.  This cannot be done with a will alone.  A practical example of this point is the use of a trust by parents, in case they both die prematurely, to avoid the immediate distribution of assets to their children upon turning eighteen.

The legal framework of your estate plan is important, but let's look now at an equally important human factor-choosing the appropriate person to represent you after you are gone.