The Free Estate Planning Tool That Shows What Your Family Really Needs
You have meant to get this handled for a while. You know there should be a will, maybe a trust, and every time you sit down to figure out which, you come away with more questions than you started with, forty articles that all end the same way, telling you to call a lawyer. So it goes back on the list, one more thing you will get to, until a hard headline or a friend’s sudden loss reminds you that none of us are promised tomorrow.
Here is what I feel almost no one gets told plainly. Whether your loved ones inherit a clear plan or a painful mess does not come down to how much money you have or how well you understand the law. It comes down to a handful of real facts about your life, your home, your children, and the way you hold what you own. Get those right and the rest follows.
I built this because I have watched how much heavier a loss becomes when there is no plan, and because the people who need this most are the least able to wade through legal language to find it. Answer a few questions in the tool below and you will see what your family actually needs, what it costs to leave it undone, and where to set it up, including the paths where the will is free.
- A will is enough for most families: it names guardians for your children and directs who gets what.
- A living trust adds probate avoidance, privacy, and a plan that works if you become incapacitated.
- If you own a home, want to skip probate, or value privacy, a trust starts to earn its cost.
- Life insurance you already need can include a free will; the tool checks that path before any paid one.
- Probate can take 3 to 7 percent of an estate and 9 to 24 months; a funded trust avoids it entirely.
How Prepared Are You?
This Free Estate Planning Tool Helps You in Finding Gaps In Your Estate Plan and Provides You with the Best Options to Fit Your Specific Needs.
| Feature | Will | Living trust |
|---|---|---|
| Names guardians for minor children | Yes | No, a will still does this |
| Avoids probate on your home | No | Yes, when funded |
| Stays private, not public record | No | Yes |
| Works if you become incapacitated | No | Yes |
| Typical online cost | Lower | Higher |
| Best for | Simple estate, guardianship the main goal | Own a home, skip probate, value privacy |
- The Free Estate Planning Tool That Shows What Your Family Really Needs
- How Prepared Are You?
- Will vs Trust: Which One Does Your Family Need?
- What a complete plan includes, beyond a will or a trust
- How much does a living trust cost, and what is the cheapest legitimate way to get one?
- How do you avoid probate, and what does it cost?
- Can life insurance include a free will?
- What happens to your digital accounts and crypto when you pass?
- What protects an unmarried couple?
- Do you need a special needs trust?
- Where should you keep your will and estate documents?
- Who this tool is for, and who should look elsewhere
- How to use it
- Frequently Asked Questions
Will vs Trust: Which One Does Your Family Need?
A will and a living trust both direct where your assets go, but they work in different ways, and the difference decides whether your family spends a weekend or a year settling your estate. A will takes effect only after you pass, names who raises your minor children and who receives what, and passes through probate, the court process that validates it in public. A living trust takes effect the moment you fund it, holds your assets during your lifetime, and transfers them to your beneficiaries without probate at all.
For most families with a simple estate, a will is genuinely enough, and paying for a trust you do not need is money wasted. The moment a trust starts to earn its cost is when you own a home, hold property in more than one state, or want your affairs kept private, because probate is public record and a funded trust never enters it. If you want to see how probate works in your state, the court self-help guides lay out the steps plainly. The comparison below shows the difference at a glance, and the tool above turns it into a personal answer in a few questions.
| Feature | Will | Living trust |
|---|---|---|
| Names guardians for minor children | Yes | No, a will still does this |
| Avoids probate on your home | No | Yes, when funded |
| Stays private, not public record | No | Yes |
| Works if you become incapacitated | No | Yes |
| Typical online cost | Lower | Higher |
| Best for | Simple estate, guardianship the main goal | Own a home, skip probate, value privacy |
What a complete plan includes, beyond a will or a trust
A will or trust is the core of a plan, not the whole of it. A complete plan protects the parts most people forget: what probate would take from the estate, the life insurance that pays the bills, the digital accounts and crypto no one else can reach, the partner the law does not recognize, and the documents your family cannot find when they need them. Here is what the tool checks, and why each one matters.
How much does a living trust cost, and what is the cheapest legitimate way to get one?
Set up through an attorney, a living trust commonly runs 1,500 to 6,000 dollars. Set up through a reputable online service, a real and valid trust runs a few hundred dollars, and the document is just as legally binding when it is signed and funded correctly. The lowest-cost real trust in our network is around 349 dollars, with a special needs trust built into it at no extra charge, which you can read about in our Living Trustify review. If a trust is more than your situation calls for, a simple will costs less and does the job. The tool tells you honestly which group you are in before it ever shows you a price.
How do you avoid probate, and what does it cost?
Probate is the court process that settles an estate, and it is the real cost of doing nothing. It commonly takes 3 to 7 percent of the gross estate, figured on the full value of your home before the mortgage, and runs 9 to 24 months from start to finish. Three tools keep assets out of it: a funded living trust, named beneficiaries on your accounts, and a transfer on death deed on your home. Our probate cost calculator computes your exact number by state, so the figure is yours and not a national average.
Can life insurance include a free will?
This is the shortcut almost no one is told about. If you need life insurance anyway, an eligible policy through certain carriers includes an attorney-built will and estate tools at no extra cost, worth roughly what a standalone will would run you. It is not a trick; the will rides along with the policy you were already going to buy. The tool checks this path before it ever points you toward a paid will, so you never pay for what you can get free, and you can read how the coverage and the included will work together on our Ethos review. The perk depends on your state and eligibility, which the tool confirms as it routes you.
What happens to your digital accounts and crypto when you pass?
Your online accounts, your passwords, and your cryptocurrency can vanish the moment you pass, because if no one can reach them, no court order can recover them. The fix is two parts that stack rather than compete. A digital vault stores your credentials and delivers them to the person you name, under verified conditions, so your family is not locked out of your accounts; our LVED review covers how that delivery works. Crypto goes one step further: the keys belong in offline self-custody, on hardware no exchange failure, app shutdown, or account lockout can ever reach. The tool flags exactly what you hold and routes each part to the right protection. Physical crypto wallets like Ledger and Trezor cryptocurrency wallets work effectively by securing your Bitcoin and other tokens. Learn more about crypto estate planning.
What protects an unmarried couple?
If your partner passes and the two of you were never married, most states give you nothing by default, even after decades in the same home, because intestacy law recognizes spouses and blood relatives, not partners. This is the gap that surprises people most, and it is entirely avoidable. Three documents protect an unmarried couple: a will that names each other, beneficiary designations on your accounts and life insurance, and the right deed on your home so it passes to the survivor rather than to a relative you may have never met. The tool builds this path specifically, because the default outcome here is the harshest in all of estate planning.
Do you need a special needs trust?
A direct inheritance can cost a loved one the very support it was meant to help with. When a person with a disability receives money outright, it can push them over the asset limit and end their Supplemental Security Income or Medicaid. A special needs trust holds the inheritance for their benefit without counting against those limits, so the support continues and the money still helps. It is the one document a family with a dependent who has special needs should not skip, and the tool surfaces it the moment that need appears.
Where should you keep your will and estate documents?
The best plan in the world fails if your family cannot find it. Keep your will where the person settling your estate can actually reach it, which rules out the most common choice: a bank safe deposit box can be sealed at death until a court order opens it, delaying the very people who need it. A fireproof home safe, a digital vault with named access, or your attorney’s office are all better, and a physical organizer that walks your family through every category is better still. Whatever you choose, tell your executor exactly where it is.
Who this tool is for, and who should look elsewhere
This tool is built for the person planning ahead: someone who wants an honest read on whether a will is enough or a trust is worth it, who wants the cost of doing nothing in plain numbers, and who would rather protect their family this weekend than keep pushing it down the list. It fits first-time planners, new parents, homeowners, unmarried couples, and anyone holding digital assets or crypto.
It is not the right tool for a genuinely complex estate. If you own a business with partners, hold property across several states, are settling a contested blended-family situation, or your estate is large enough to face federal estate tax, an attorney is worth the cost, and the tool will tell you so rather than sell you a form you should not rely on. You can also browse every option in our Legacy and Estate Planning directory if you would rather explore than answer questions.
How to use it
Start the tool near the top of this page and answer one question at a time. It branches, so a simple estate takes a short path and only the relevant questions appear. When you reach the end, you get a full readiness report: a single plan readiness score, then every part of your plan laid out one by one, what you already have, where the gaps are, and the recommended choice for each with the reasoning behind it. It includes your personalized probate exposure number and your life insurance coverage need in real dollars. You can read the whole report free on screen, download it as a PDF to keep or share, or have it emailed to you. Nothing you enter is stored. If your life changes, a move, a marriage, a new child, a new home, come back and run it again.
Frequently Asked Questions
Short answers to the questions people ask most before they start.
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