Find your fit
Common scenarios
These plain-language outlines can help you spot which situations are closest to yours. They are educational only — not a recommendation or legal advice. The questionnaire turns your specific answers into a personalized guide.
Parents (with minor or grown children)
Planning for a family usually means deciding who raises your children, who manages money for them, and how and when assets reach them.
Topics you might discuss with an attorney
- A will, and a guardian nomination for minor children.
- Whether a trust should hold and stage distributions until a later age instead of an outright gift at 18.
- Choosing a guardian (who raises the child) and a trustee or property manager (who handles money) — these can be different people.
- Health care and financial powers of attorney so someone can act for you if you cannot.
- Coordinating beneficiary designations on retirement accounts and life insurance with your will or trust.
Tip: A child turning 18 changes a parent's default access to medical and school records — see the college-student path in the questionnaire.
Young professionals
Early in your career the focus is often on simplicity, naming someone to act for you, and keeping beneficiary forms current as jobs and accounts change.
Topics you might discuss with an attorney
- A basic will and up-to-date beneficiary designations (retirement, life insurance, payable-on-death accounts).
- A durable financial power of attorney and health care documents so a trusted person can help if you cannot.
- Whether a revocable trust adds value for you — for many people starting out, a will plus beneficiary designations is simpler and still effective.
- Reviewing documents after a move to a new state, marriage, or a new job with different benefits.
Tip: Priorities like simplicity and incapacity planning are perfectly valid starting points — there's no 'right' amount of complexity.
Retirees and older adults
Later life often brings questions about managing assets during incapacity, avoiding unnecessary probate, multi-state property, and providing for a surviving spouse or adult children.
Topics you might discuss with an attorney
- Confirming health care and financial powers of attorney are current and accepted by your institutions.
- Whether a revocable trust, retitling, or beneficiary designations could simplify administration — especially for real estate in more than one state.
- How to provide for a surviving spouse while also providing for children, including children from a prior relationship.
- Federal and state estate, inheritance, or gift tax questions that may apply to your situation.
- Whether existing documents still reflect your current assets, family, and wishes.
Tip: Documents signed years ago may no longer fit current law or your current life — a review is worthwhile even if you already have a plan.
Ready for a personalized version? The questionnaire builds a guide from your specific answers.
Start the questionnairePublic self-help resources
If you're curious what happens when someone passes away without a plan, the California Courts offer an official self-help guide.
California Courts — Guide to property after someone diesThis guide is for general education and conversation preparation. It is not legal or tax advice, does not create an attorney-client relationship, and cannot determine which documents are right for you. Laws and individual circumstances vary by state.