Core Service
Estate planning doesn't have to be the complicated thing you've been putting off.
Most people don't need it to be a complicated thing anymore. That's our opinion, and it comes from years of doing this professionally: most families don't need to hire an attorney, sit through a custom drafting process, and pay for a bespoke document. That's certainly an option, and depending on what you want, it may be the avenue you should go down. But for most of the people we sit across from in real life, what they want is pretty similar to what everyone else wants.
In short
They want it to be easy on their family if they pass away. They want the money to go to their kids, unless they've said differently. They want their family protected, with enough money and not too much money at once. They want it to follow their bloodline. All of that can be done now, well, on an online platform. Welcome to the modern age.
There's even a strong argument that templated language, adjusted to your situation, holds up better than a custom document, because the same language has been used many thousands of times before.
Three steps, and the first one is where people stall
- 01
The conversation
Someone like us sits with you and talks, in plain English rather than legalese, about what you'd actually want to happen if you passed away tonight. If you and your spouse both did. What happens with the kids, with the money, with all the stuff. This is the biggest step, and it's the one that gets procrastinated, because nobody starts it on their own. Once it's happening, it's the easiest part.
- 02
The documents
We send you an invite to the online estate planning platform we use with clients. You're the one filling it out, and we're guiding you. That distinction is the whole thing. We aren't attorneys, so we don't give legal advice. We give legal guidance, in the context of your financial plan, and for a large share of families that's more than sufficient: what this type of trust is, what people commonly do in this situation, what the choice in front of you actually means. The platform walks you through a series of plain yes-or-no questions, and you go as far as you can without us. Then we read what you've built against the conversation we just had, and point out anything that doesn't match. "You selected this, but that's different from what you told us." A short call fixes what needs fixing, the documents are drafted again, and most of the time that's the version. Then we meet in the office, or a mobile notary comes to you, and the documents are witnessed, notarized, and in force.
- 03
The follow-through
The documents alone aren't enough to finish the job. If you have a revocable living trust, and most of our clients do, the beneficiaries on your financial accounts have to be updated to match the documents, and assets that don't carry a beneficiary, like a house, have to be retitled to the trust. Until that's done, the process isn't complete.
Where estate planning usually dies
We meet people all the time who recently finished their estate documents, and whose estate planning isn't finished. The classic version: the documents got done, and then nobody updated the beneficiaries or moved anything into the trust. If that person passes away, a large part of the work they paid for does nothing. Going all the way through the planning process is a different thing from going through the document creation process, and it's the whole reason estate planning belongs inside the rest of your plan rather than off at an office by itself. What estate planning covers.
When you still need an attorney
The question is really whether you need custom documents. Two situations answer yes more often than any others.
If your estate is over the federal estate tax exemption, which as of 2026 is $15 million per person and $30 million for a married couple, there's enough nuance to how trusts get structured that you should almost certainly work with an attorney and a planner together. You'll need custom documents, and that's where the attorney comes in.
If you have a child with special needs, a special needs trust is a place where an attorney is commonly brought in.
In our view the estate planning process itself is better led by a financial planner, because of everything around it. How much it matters to leave money to this child or that one, or to a church, or to make sure it doesn't go to certain people, changes your spending decisions, which change your investment decisions. Ideally the same team is doing all of those. Document creation is one piece of the process, and sometimes that piece needs an attorney. The process should still be led by the planner. Do I need a trust? How to leave money to children.
What's yours to do
Estate planning is a little ironic here. We do everything we can for you, and this is the one part of the plan that needs some real involvement from you, because three things can't be done on your behalf.
We have to pull out of you what you'd really want, and that takes a person asking good questions and you answering them. The documents are yours, and the platform account is set up in your name, so you can update them as life changes. And the beneficiaries on accounts we don't manage, a life insurance plan at work, a checking account, are yours to update.
The trade is worth it. Once it's done, most people don't need to touch it for years, maybe ever, where an investment allocation might need attention again next month. When we go through this with you, it gets done.
How it's done here
Estate planning is part of The Keystone Method, decided at the same table as the plan, the investments, and the taxes, because the account decisions and the estate decisions are the same decisions seen from two sides. The pricing page has every number.
Before you decide
Questions people ask.
Bring the rest to the Explore Call.
Do I need a trust, or is a will enough?
It depends on what you want to happen and what you own. A revocable living trust is common among our clients, and the conversation is where that gets decided.
Is this legal advice?
No. We're not attorneys. We give legal guidance in the context of your financial plan, and the platform's documents are yours to complete. When custom documents are needed, we bring in an attorney.
We did our documents years ago. Are we done?
Only if the beneficiaries and the titling were updated to match them. That's the step most people missed, and it's the first thing we check.
Can I update the documents later?
Yes. The account is set up in your name, and updating the documents as life changes is part of what it's for.
The next conversation
Where to start
The first step is an Explore Call, fifteen minutes by phone, with the question that's on your mind. If estate planning is the thing you've been putting off, that's a fine question to bring.