Estate Planning Documents You Need To Organize and Share

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Your estate planning documents will be essential in the settling of your estate, including getting through probate. By organizing these important papers, you can help your family more easily get through the probate process and properly distribute your assets

For different estate planning documents you will need to gather different types of information. Below are typical legal and financial accounts, and the types of documentation you should get together to be best organized.

For a printable checklist of all the documents you might need to collect, use our resource Checklist: Documents to Organize and Share.

Will

Copy of the Will
Copies of previous versions of the Will
Name of attorney, law firm, or online service that helped create the Will, if applicable

Trusts

Declarations of Trust or Trust agreements
Name of attorney, law firm, or online service that helped create the Trust, if applicable
Bank accounts associated with the Trust

Related Read: All You Need To Know About Trusts

Power Of Attorney

Name of the person appointed to Power Of Attorney
Power Of Attorney documentation
Name of attorney, law firm, or online service that helped create the POA, if applicable

Advance Directive

An Advance Directive is the combination of a Living Will and naming a Health Care Proxy.
You can find your state's Advance Directive form here.
Make sure your Proxy, doctors, and anyone else important in your life know where you keep this document since it can be vital during a medical emergency.