Most people hear "estate planning" and picture estate taxes, which affect a small number of households. For nearly everyone else, estate planning is about four much more immediate things: who makes decisions for you if you can't make them yourself, who raises your children if something happens to you, who receives what you have and in what manner, and how much friction your family has to absorb during the worst month of their lives.

The core documents are a will, a durable power of attorney for financial matters, a medical power of attorney, a directive to physicians, a HIPAA authorization, and guardian nominations if you have minor children. A revocable living trust is appropriate for some situations and unnecessary for many. In Texas, probate is comparatively efficient, so we don't push a trust on every client. We recommend one when there's a reason: property in another state, privacy concerns, a blended family, special needs planning, multiple real estate holdings, or a desire for cleaner administration if you become incapacitated.

First, whether the documents exist at all, and whether anyone can find the originals. Then whether they still reflect what you want, since a will drafted before a divorce, a remarriage, or the birth of a child often doesn't. Then the people: is your executor still the right person, is there a named backup, is your medical agent someone who actually knows your wishes and can hold the line under family pressure. If you have minor children, whether the guardian nomination has been thought through, and whether the best guardian and the best trustee are the same person, which is often not the case.

Then we look at the part almost everyone misses. A large share of your wealth doesn't pass through your will at all. Retirement accounts, life insurance, and any account with a payable-on-death or transfer-on-death designation pass by beneficiary designation, and those designations override your will. The single most common failure we find is a document saying one thing while account designations say another, usually an ex-spouse still listed on a 401(k) from two jobs ago. We also review how real estate is titled and how joint ownership is structured. And if a trust was created, we check whether it was ever actually funded, because an unfunded trust does very little.

The Blueprint answers the essential questions clearly. The Framework adds real tax and retirement analysis for households where the decisions carry more weight. The Capstone maps everything, for people close enough to retirement that they want no loose ends.

Yes, and many clients do. Households usually move up as assets and complexity grow, and the work already done carries forward rather than starting over.

We do a full investment analysis and give you written recommendations at every level, including the Blueprint. That covers what you own, what it costs you in fees and internal expenses, how it's allocated, how much risk is concentrated in any one place, how tax-efficient it is, and whether the right assets are sitting in the right accounts. We include accounts we don't manage, such as your 401(k), because a portfolio can't be evaluated one account at a time. You get specific recommendations regardless of whether we end up managing the money.

No. You can engage us for planning alone and pay the flat fee, and you'll still get the complete investment analysis and recommendations. If you'd like us to manage assets as well, you receive a custom quote with a planning credit based on the assets we manage, which reduces or eliminates the out-of-pocket planning cost.

Brian T. Boswell, CFP®, leads every planning engagement. The Retirement Studio is affiliated with Savvy Advisors, Inc., an SEC-registered investment advisor. We custody client assets at Charles Schwab and Fidelity.