Estate planning is more than deciding who gets your property. Learn how a clear estate plan can protect your family, reduce confusion, and make life easier for the people you love.

Do you need a will or a trust in Utah? Learn when a will may be enough, when I usually recommend a trust, and how to choose the plan that will work best for your family.

When people come into my office to talk about estate planning, they sometimes tell me one of their main goals is to avoid probate. I understand why. For years marketing around estate planning has focused on probate horror stories. And even putting those terrible situations aside, nobody wants to leave their family with an unnecessary court process after they die.

For a lot of my clients, choosing an executor starts with a surprisingly uncomfortable question: “Which one of my kids should I put in charge?” Maybe your oldest child seems like the obvious choice. Maybe one of your children is much better with money or paperwork than the others. Maybe you are tempted to name all of them because you don’t want anyone to feel left out.

If you have started looking into estate planning, you have probably noticed something frustrating: there is no single
answer to the question, “How much does an estate plan cost?”

A pour-over will serves a different purpose. It acts as a safety net for assets that were supposed to be part of your trust but weren’t. Rather than leaving those assets directly to your beneficiaries, the will directs them into your trust so they can ultimately be handled according to the instructions you’ve already created.