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Estate Planning, Explained
A living map of modern estate planning
Understand how wills, trusts, taxes, beneficiary designations, probate, business succession, and advanced planning strategies fit together—without starting in the middle.
Find your entry point
One subject, organized from simple to advanced
Trusts
Start with purpose, control, access, funding, and administration.
Taxes & basis
Separate reporting, actual tax, basis, and state questions.
Probate & administration
A calm path for executors, trustees, beneficiaries, and families.
By situation
Family, ownership, disability, business, and digital assets change the map.
State laws
Identify domicile, property location, and trust situs before applying a general rule.
Explore trusts
The trust database, without the alphabet soup
Start with what a structure is designed to do, then examine control, access, taxes, protection, cost, and tradeoffs.
Revocable Living Trust
A revocable living trust is a lifetime management and transfer framework the settlor can usually amend or revoke while capable; it can support incapacity and avoid probate for properly funded assets, but it is not a stand-alone tax shelter.
Simple explanation and deeper guide
Irrevocable Trust
An irrevocable trust is a broad category in which the settlor cannot simply reclaim or rewrite the arrangement at will; its tax, creditor, and control results depend on retained powers, beneficiary rights, funding, and governing law.
Simple explanation and deeper guide
Testamentary Trust
A testamentary trust is created under a will and begins at death after the will is admitted and the trust is funded through estate administration.
Simple explanation and deeper guide
Credit Shelter / Bypass Trust
A credit shelter trust is funded at the first spouse's death to use available exclusion and benefit family without ordinary inclusion in the surviving spouse's estate when designed and administered correctly.
Simple explanation and deeper guide
Spousal Lifetime Access Trust
A SLAT is an irrevocable lifetime gift trust created by one spouse for the other spouse and often descendants, seeking to move assets outside the donor's estate while preserving indirect family access through discretionary distributions.
Simple explanation and deeper guide
Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust
An ILIT is an irrevocable trust designed to own or receive life insurance and manage proceeds, often seeking liquidity and exclusion from the insured's gross estate when ownership and administration rules are satisfied.
Simple explanation and deeper guide
Third-Party Special Needs Trust
A third-party special needs trust holds assets contributed by someone other than the beneficiary and gives a trustee discretion to supplement the beneficiary's life without assuming the trust is invisible to every benefit program.
Simple explanation and deeper guide
Grantor Retained Annuity Trust
A GRAT is an irrevocable term trust in which the grantor keeps a fixed annuity and transfers remaining value to beneficiaries if asset performance exceeds the assumed federal rate and the structure succeeds.
Simple explanation and deeper guide
Dynasty Trust
A dynasty trust is a long-duration trust designed to hold and govern assets for multiple generations, often combining GST planning, beneficiary protection, and flexible fiduciary governance.
Simple explanation and deeper guideSide-by-side
Different trust names can hide very different tradeoffs.
Planning paths
Learn by life stage or by situation
Estate planning by life stage
The documents and questions that tend to become relevant as life changes.
Estate planning by situation
Focused guides for ownership, family, beneficiary, and planning circumstances.
Place matters
Estate planning by state
Probate procedures, small-estate rules, state estate and inheritance taxes, community-property rules, and trust statutes can vary by jurisdiction. Every state guide identifies its jurisdiction, review date, and official sources.
- AKAlaskaNo separate state death tax flagged for 2026
- CACaliforniaNo separate state death tax flagged for 2026
- CTConnecticutState Estate Tax
- DEDelawareNo separate state death tax flagged for 2026
- FLFloridaNo separate state death tax flagged for 2026
- ILIllinoisState Estate Tax
- MDMarylandState Estate Tax, Inheritance Tax
Plan with structure
Checklists and educational calculators
Explore questions, assumptions, and planning concepts without entering account numbers or other sensitive information.
Estate Planning Workbench
Build one shared estate snapshot, add only the calculations you need, and review a consolidated set of educational results.
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Federal Estate Tax Calculator
Illustrate a simplified 2026 federal taxable-estate amount and marginal tax exposure.
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State Estate Tax Screening Calculator
Use The Estate Guide's current categorical state estate-tax research to screen an estate value and open the controlling state guide.
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Gift Tax Reporting Illustrator
Separate the annual-exclusion reporting question from actual gift tax that might be payable.
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Estate Value Calculator
Build a broad gross-asset and net-estate snapshot without entering account numbers or identifying details.
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Probate Cost Estimator
Apply a transparent assumption to explore how administration costs can affect an estate.
Open toolWhat changed
Estate-planning news and law updates
Federal tax developments, IRS guidance, court decisions, and state-law changes—connected back to evergreen explainers.
The Little-Known Responsibilities Of Being An Estate Executor
Estate executor are responsible for discovering and paying all legitimate obligations of the estate before distributing assets to beneficiaries.
Source: Forbes
The 5 Biggest Myths in Estate Planning and the Strategies to Follow Instead
From outdated beneficiary designations to the false security of a set-it-and-forget-it plan, active engagement is the strongest defense against costly mistakes.
Source: Kiplinger
10 'Treasures' Your Adult Children Don't Want You to Pass Down
From heirloom china to your old golf clubs, here is what your grown kids secretly wish you'd unload — just not on them.
Source: Kiplinger