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Individuals and Families with Minor Children

Estate Documents for a Complete Plan

Your will or trust is just one document in a comprehensive estate plan. Drafting a Power of Attorney and a Living Will (Advance Healthcare Directive) to allow others to act on your behalf in case you are incapacitated or otherwise need assistance is also a good idea. Our online partner platform gives you the option to create both documents at no cost to you. Your state may have restrictions on who can serve as an agent, so we recommend reviewing regulations on your state’s website to ensure your agent would be eligible to serve if needed. Your state’s website may also have blank templates of these documents available.

POA

A Power of Attorney (POA) designates someone to act on your behalf for personal and/or financial matters. This designee is called your agent or attorney-in-fact. You can give your agent general powers to act on your behalf in any matter, or you may limit their powers. There are two primary types of POA documents available: a durable POA goes into effect immediately upon signing, enabling your designated agent to act on your behalf in any time of need, and would also continue throughout your incapacity; a springing POA gives your agent power in the future, only upon the occurrence of a specific event you define, such as a physician certifying your incapacity in writing.

Living Will/Advance Healthcare Directive

A Living Will documents your wishes regarding medical decisions in case you are incapacitated or otherwise unable to make your own medical decisions. This is often combined with an Advance Healthcare Directive, which designates someone to act on your behalf for such healthcare decisions. By drafting these documents, you can ensure your emergency or end-of-life medical care wishes are met while also providing guidance for your agents and loved ones so they can take comfort in knowing they are acting according to your wishes.

Non-Legal Supplemental Documents

When storing your estate documents, it is helpful for your executor to have a list of all your accounts.

  • An Account List/Beneficiary Plan document can organize your account information in one place so your executor knows whom to contact to facilitate the transfer of your accounts to their beneficiaries (or to the estate if no living beneficiaries are named).

  • A similar helpful list you can include is a Digital Asset Inventory. This would include logins and passwords for your social media, financial institutions, online vendors, and even your computer itself. You can also include instructions for your digital executor to deactivate memberships and social accounts or distribute things like your digital photos to your loved ones.

  • In addition, a Letter of Instructions or Personal Property Memorandum can provide instructions for distributing tangible personal property directly to friends and family. Since this is a supplemental document drafted by you, you could make the letter very personal and even explain why you want certain items to be passed to each person.

  • Finally, if your will or trust does not have a section for a personal statement, you could consider including one as a separate letter. Your Personal Statement is also a great place to include your personal testimony or other statement of faith, ensuring that your love for Jesus is passed down in your legacy.

Prayer and Action Items

☐ Decide if you would like to create or update your POA and Living Will/Advance Healthcare Directive – and pray through who you would select as your agents for each.

☐ Consider one or more of the non-legal supplemental documents and start gathering the pertinent information in one central location. (We highly recommend creating an Account List/Beneficiary Plan and a Digital Asset Inventory.)

To download the Prayer and Action Items PDF, click here.

Next Steps

☐ Complete all prayer and action items in this section. (Click here for a PDF of this checklist, including all prayer and action items above.)

☐ Determine if you would like to draft your estate documents using our online partner platform.

If you prefer to work with an estate planning attorney and would like a referral to someone in your area, please contact our Gift & Estate Design team

☐ Optional: Set yourself up for success with our online partner platform by utilizing our custom guides for each document you are drafting

Questions?

For questions about using our online partner platform, please visit our Will Planning Partner Platform FAQs page.

For any estate planning-related questions, please email or call 866-802-1490, and one of our team members will be happy to assist you.

Next Step: Estate Documents for a Complete Plan

Click the button to learn about the other documents in a comprehensive estate plan.

  • "You should have two financial goals in life: to make a little money first, and then to make a little money last."

    Unknown

  • "If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free; if our wealth commands us, we are poor, indeed. We are bought by the enemy with the treasure in our own coffers."

    Edmund Burke

  • "Every man ought to have money on his mind. No man ought to have money on his heart."

    Anonymous

  • "How much better it is to get wisdom than gold! And to get understanding is to be chosen above silver."

    Proverbs 16:16

  • "The plans of the diligent lead surely to advantage, but everyone who is hasty comes surly to poverty."

    Proverbs 21:5

  • "Divide your portion to seven, or even to eight, for you do not know what misfortune may occur on the earth."

    Ecclesiastes 11:2

  • "Almost any man knows how to earn money, but not one in a million knows how to spend it."

    Henry David Thoreau

  • "We are not to jude thrift soley by the test of saving or spending. If one spends what he should prudently save, that certainly is to be deplored. But if one saves what he should prudently spend, that is not necessarily to be commended. A wise balance between the two is the desired end."

    Owen D. Young

  • "There's no reason to be the richest man in the cemetery. You can't do any business from there."

    Colonel Sanders

  • "A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children, and the wealth of the sinner has stored up for the righteous."

    Proverbs 13:22

  • "Planning one's finances must take place under the sovereignty of God, recognizing His omnipotence, wisdom, purposes, and plans."

    Ron Blue

  • "If a person gets his attitude toward money straight, it will help straighten out almost every other area of his life."

    Billy Graham

  • "God can have our money and not have our hearts, but He cannot have our hearts without having our money."

    R. Kent Hughes

  • "Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share."

    I Timothy 6:18

  • "Ultimately, financial planning is the predetermined use of financial resources in order to accomplish certain goals and objectives. The difference in financial planning between the Christian and the non-Christian is the belief as to whom the financial resources belong and the source of the goals and objectives."

    Ron Blue

  • "…every spending decision is a spiritual decision"

    Ron Blue

  • "Stewardship is the use of God-given resources for the accomplishment of God-given goals."

    Ron Blue

  • "A wise man should have money in his head, but not in his heart."

    Jonathan Swift

  • "Make all you can, save all you can, give all you can."

    John Wesley

  • "A man's treatment of money is the most decisive test of his character - how he makes it and how he spends it."

    Moffat

  • "Financial planning is allocating limited financial resources among unlimited alternatives."

    Ron Blue