MONEY HACKS: Why Estate Planning Matters More Than You Think

Estate planning tends to be one of those topics people assume they can deal with “someday.” Maybe when they retire, buy a home, or feel like they’ve reached a certain level of wealth. But the truth is far simpler: this is a basic, foundational piece of your financial picture, no matter where you are in life. And the earlier you put the essentials in place, the more clarity and protection you give yourself down the road.

A great place to start is with something surprisingly easy to overlook: reviewing the beneficiaries on your accounts. Retirement plans, insurance policies, and even investment accounts rely on those designations, and a quick yearly update can prevent complications that no one wants to deal with in the future. There are also plenty of accessible tools that help you set up key documents like a will, powers of attorney, and healthcare directives, giving you structure and peace of mind without needing a complex legal process.

Estate planning isn’t about anticipating the worst; it’s about being organized, thoughtful, and proactive with what you’ve worked hard to build. Getting these basics in order now can make everything else in your financial life feel more stable, intentional, and secure.

Have questions or a topic you’d like us to cover next? Money Hacks is built around real conversations with people just like you. Let us know what’s on your mind.

Video Transcript

The reality is this is a basic, foundational piece of your financial picture. Today, we're talking about estate planning, a topic many of us misunderstand or are misinformed about.

For example, I hear a lot of folks say, “Oh, that's something I do when I'm near retirement,” or “You only need to worry about estate planning if you have a lot of assets or you're wealthy.”

The reality is this is a basic, foundational piece of your financial picture. And while everybody's individual financial footprint and financial picture is different, you need to understand your overall picture compared to others. For example, when to hire a professional, when to engage an attorney to help you with your estate plan, versus doing estate-planning things that you can do on your own to make sure you are getting the basic, foundational pieces in place to protect the assets that you've accumulated.

One example, especially right now as we're getting into the end of the year, that I always recommend is to review and update your beneficiaries. So many of your financial accounts and other assets have beneficiaries named on those accounts—for example, your 401(k) or 403(b) inside your employer plan, or your IRAs.

If you have a life insurance policy, you want to make sure you've named beneficiaries on those accounts and that you review and update them at least every year or so. Second, there are a number of different competitively priced resources to help you put in place basic legal documents like a will, trust, powers of attorney, and even a healthcare directive.

Again, the more complex your financial picture and your assets, the more likely you might be at a point where you want to engage an expert and an estate attorney to do this alongside you. But if you're a younger professional—maybe mid-career, just getting started out—and you want to have this risk management in place, it’s really important to put together and finalize or ratify a will, power of attorney, and healthcare directives.

Hopefully, this is helpful. And if you have more questions, feel free to reach out to our team. We'll see you next time.