Get Your Affairs in Order

A Plain-English Estate Planning Guide for Ordinary Families: Wills, Guardians, Trusts, Beneficiaries, Powers of Attorney, and the Emergency Binder Your Loved Ones Will Need

Everything your family will need if something happens to you, organized in 30 days.

$12.99

Buy now – $12.99

Instant PDF download · Secure checkout · Read on any device

What you get

Will basics that hold up: signing rules, witnesses, and what to include
How to choose a guardian and protect your kids' inheritance
Living trust vs. will: honest pros, cons, and probate cost examples
Beneficiary and TOD/POD audit that prevents the most common disaster
Power of attorney, health care proxy, and HIPAA release explained
2026 federal estate tax ($15 million) and a state tax table
Complete 12-tab emergency binder with fill-in templates
Step-by-step executor checklist and a 30-day action plan

If something happened to you tomorrow, would your family know who raises the kids, where the will is, which accounts exist, or how to get into your phone? For most families, the honest answer is no. This book fixes that, in plain English, without the legal jargon.

Get Your Affairs in Order walks ordinary American families through every piece of a real estate plan: what makes a will valid (and how the rules vary by state), how to choose a guardian for minor children, when a revocable living trust beats a will and when it's a waste of money, and why the beneficiary forms on your 401(k) and life insurance override everything else. You'll learn what a durable power of attorney, health care proxy, and HIPAA release actually do, how to plan for digital accounts and passwords, and how to size term vs. whole life insurance with a simple worksheet.

Tax rules are current for 2026, including the $15 million federal estate tax exemption set by the 2025 law change, plus a state-by-state table of estate and inheritance taxes. You also get a complete 12-tab "in case of emergency" binder with fill-in templates, a letter of instruction, word-for-word scripts for talking to your family, real cost comparisons for DIY, online services, and attorneys, and a step-by-step executor's guide.

Educational, not legal advice: the book shows you exactly what to ask an estate planning attorney in your state, so you walk in prepared and spend less. Finish the 30-day action plan and your family will have a clear map instead of a mess.

What's inside

Start Here: The Paperwork Every Family Puts Off
What Really Happens If You Die Without a Plan
Your Will: What Makes It Valid and What to Put in It
Choosing a Guardian for Your Children (and Protecting Their Money)
Will or Living Trust? Probate, Costs, and an Honest Comparison
Beneficiary Forms and TOD/POD Accounts: The Paperwork That Beats Your Will
Durable Power of Attorney: Who Pays Your Bills If You Can't
Health Care Directive, Health Care Proxy, and HIPAA Release
Digital Assets and Passwords: Don't Lock Your Family Out
Life Insurance Basics: Term vs. Whole and How Much Is Enough
Estate and Inheritance Taxes in 2026: Will Anyone Owe Anything?
The "In Case of Emergency" Binder: The Complete Checklist and Templates
Letters of Instruction and the Family Conversation
DIY, Online Service, or Attorney? Costs, Trade-offs, and Keeping It Current
What an Executor Does: A Step-by-Step Guide
Official Sources and Your 30-Day Action Plan

Read a sample

Your 401(k) might be your biggest asset after your house. Your life insurance might be worth more than everything else combined. And neither one cares what your will says. They pay whoever is named on a form you may have filled out years ago in an HR orientation. This chapter is the highest-value hour in this book. The form usually wins. If your will says "everything to my wife" but your IRA names your brother, your brother generally gets the IRA. Many states have laws that automatically revoke an ex-spouse's designation after divorce, but those laws don't apply to every type of account. In a 2001 case, Egelhoff v. Egelhoff, the U.S. Supreme Court held that federal ERISA law preempted a state revocation-on-divorce statute for an employer plan, so the ex-spouse named on the form was entitled to the benefits. Don't count on the law to clean up an old form. Update it. Always name contingent beneficiaries. The primary beneficiary gets the money if alive. The contingent (secondary) beneficiary gets it if the primary has died. If no one named is alive, the account usually goes to your estate, which means probate and, for retirement accounts, often worse tax treatment for your heirs.