Nobody looks forward to estate planning. Most people put it off for years, and not just because they're busy, though they are. They put it off because somewhere in the back of their mind, thinking about an estate plan feels like thinking about dying. And who wants to spend a Tuesday afternoon doing that.
That instinct is understandable. It is also completely backward.
Estate planning is not about your death. It is about the people who depend on you and what happens to them if you are not there. The moment you shift the frame, the whole thing changes. You are not sitting across from an attorney contemplating your mortality. You are doing something practical and genuinely loving for the people who matter most to you.
You already do this every day
Think about what you do as a parent. You put your kids in car seats. You make them wear helmets on bikes and on the football field. You find the right doctor, worry about what they eat, check that their seatbelts are on before you pull out of the driveway. None of that feels dark, because it is not dark. It is just care. It is you doing what parents do, which is protect the people in your charge from a world that does not come with any guarantees. Estate planning is that same instinct applied to a bigger risk — the possibility that you are not there to buckle anyone in.
People will spend more time buying a car
Seriously. The average person spends weeks researching a car purchase — reading reviews, comparing features, test driving, negotiating. The same person will spend approximately zero minutes on a will, which will have far more impact on their family than whether they got the premium sound system. There is no good reason for this. There is just the discomfort of the subject, which is a lousy reason to leave your family unprotected.
What actually happens without a plan
If you die without an estate plan, Colorado law decides what happens to everything you own. It also decides, if your children are minors, who raises them. The law's answer may not be wrong, but it was written for the general case. Your family is not the general case. Beyond the assets, the absence of a plan leaves no guidance on healthcare decisions if you become incapacitated, no clear authority for managing your finances, and no structure to protect a child who is too young to handle an inheritance or who has needs that require careful planning. That is a mess you did not intend to leave. Without a plan, you leave it anyway.
What it actually looks like
For most families, this is not complicated. A will or a revocable living trust that sends your assets to the right people. A designation of who raises your children if something happens to both parents. A power of attorney so someone you trust can manage your finances if you cannot. A healthcare directive so your medical wishes are on record and someone has the authority to enforce them. None of those documents requires a crisis to be useful. All of them require you to actually create them.
If you have been putting this off, try thinking about it differently. This is not something you do about your death. It is something you do for your kids. Put it in that category, and most of the reluctance goes away. Michael Hoog is an estate planning attorney in Longmont, Colorado. If you are ready to get started, or just want to understand your options, he is glad to talk it through.