Estate Planning
Create Your Will In 7 Easy Steps
Congratulations on taking this step in your Estate Planning journey! You’ve reached the right place, at GoodTrust, we are dedicated to making estate planning accessible and intuitive for all. Completing your will is an important task to ensure your wishes are recorded and your loved ones are protected. Once your will is completed and legalized, you'll be able to rest easy.
We all know what a will basically consists of: your last wishes, your property, your loved ones, but what are the specifics of creating a will and how can you personalize it to include all of the particular needs of you and your loved ones? Below is a step-by-step process to create your will with GoodTrust.
The 7 Easy Steps To Create Your Will With GoodTrust
1. About You
The initial About You section is where you add your basic information such as you name, your address, your phone number, your birthday, and more. Once you have provided your initial information, you will progress to the Your Family portion on your will creation flow, in which you will provide details on your family members, your general familial situation, and your wishes.
2. Your Family
This section allows you to outline your family situation. You'll be able to detail whether you are married, have any children or pets and how you wish for them to be cared for.
GoodTrust makes it simple for you to indicate the guardian of your children under the age of 18 as well as that of your pets. Learn more about how to choose the right guardian, here. In the event that you may not have potential guardians for your pets, GoodTrust offers alternative options including appointing a Humane Society. We also make it easy for you to link your loved ones including your chosen guardians by providing their email addresses (if applicable).
Further, GoodTrust gives you the ability to share important documents before or after you pass away to facilitate the difficult time and ensure your loved ones have access to all the important information they need.
3. Executors
Once you have confidently provided all valuable information regarding your immediate family and your guardianship wishes, you will progress to the Executors portion of the will creation flow, in which you will indicate who you chose to be responsible to enact your will in the event of your passing. Learn more about how to choose the right executor, here. Executors are highly important as they are the ones to carry out the terms you set in your will. Your Executors should be someone that you trust and who is willing and capable of executing your will as per your wishes.
4. Personal Property
Now, on to Personal Property! This halfway point marks the completion of your family and personal details and the beginning of the material portion of the will creation process. It is important to note that you may save your progress and return to complete or finalize your documents at any time. To assure a smooth process to completion, GoodTrust starts with the big questions then funnels them down to the specifics.
Personal Property covers everything from gifts you want to leave for your loved ones to stocks and bonds, potential non-governmental organizations donations, and more. This section precedes the Residual Estate section in which you indicate who is to inherit the remainder of your estate and property.
Within the Personal Property section, you will be able to clearly outline who gets what and under which conditions. You may specify that your sibling receives a certain amount provided that they survive you for a minimum of 30 days, for instance. GoodTrust provides flexible and customizable options to ensure your will is comprehensive and includes all the considerations you require it to.
5. Remaining Estate
Once you have completed the previous section, you will be directed to complete the Remaining Estate section which enables you to split up what is left after your Personal Property allocation between one or more beneficiaries. You may chose to allocate specific percentages to specific beneficiaries as well as indicate who should inherit should your chosen beneficiary not survive you.
6. Witnesses
In this section, you'll be prompted to select your witnesses. We recommend choosing people you trust that are willing and able to complete the task. Please note, laws regarding how to legalize your will from witness requirements to notarization vary state by state. Read our "How to Make Your Wills & Trusts Valid in Your State" article to learn how to legalize your will in your state.
7. Review
Once you have completed the Will Creation process, you will be invited to Review all submitted information for accuracy before downloading your document, uploading it to your Digital Vault, and exploring the other features GoodTrust has to offer. We highly recommend sharing your will and other documents you may create with your Trusted Contacts (e.g. family members and loved ones).
Having a will is a great first step in any estate plan. In order to create a robust estate plan, you'll want to consider creating the following important documents as well. Please note all of the following are included in our Estate+ plan:
With any estate planning decision, we recommend that you consult your loved ones, ask them questions, and work through your decision making process with them to ensure you are confident with your choices.
Start your Will today! Click here to begin.