Free estate planning guides

Which guide should you start with?

Start with the estate planning checklist. It walks through the whole picture in one pass — your will, your executor, beneficiary designations, insurance, property and final wishes — and flags the gaps most people don't know they have. Most people finish it in an evening.

Move to the digital asset inventory worksheet if a meaningful part of your life is online: email, cloud photo libraries, domains, subscriptions, loyalty balances or crypto. These are the assets families most often lose entirely, because there is no paper statement to find later.

Use the will preparation worksheet before you write or update a will. Turning up with your answers already gathered is what makes the drafting quick — whether you use our free will writer or an attorney.

What a checklist can't do

A completed checklist tells you what you own and who should get it. It does not tell your family where any of it is — and that gap is why over $70 billion sits unclaimed in the US. Institutions wait to be contacted; they don't go looking for your relatives. If nobody knows an account exists, no beneficiary form or will can rescue it.

Two things close that gap. First, name a beneficiary on every account that offers one — these override your will, so they matter more than most people realise. Our guides on what a beneficiary is and why the contingent line matters cover the details. Second, keep a current record of which institutions hold what, stored somewhere your family can actually reach when they need it.

That second part is what Passing-On does — it records where each asset lives and how to claim it, never your passwords, and releases it to the people you choose.

Common questions

Are these estate planning guides really free?

Yes. All three guides are free to view, print and keep. There is no payment, no account and no trial — you do not need to sign up to use them.

Do I need to give my email address to download them?

No. Each guide is a normal web page you can read and print straight from your browser. We ask for an email only if you choose to have a copy sent to you.

Is an estate planning checklist a substitute for a will?

No. A checklist helps you gather and organise information; a will is the legal document that says who inherits it. You need both. You can draft a will free with our will writer, then have an attorney review it.

Which guide should I start with?

Start with the estate planning checklist. It gives you the overall picture and tells you which of the other two worksheets you actually need.

Can I share these with my family?

Yes, please do. Many people work through the checklist with a spouse or an adult child, which is usually the fastest way to get it finished.