Leave a Legacy: Practical Steps to Establish an Estate Plan

Failing to create an estate plan now can leave your loved ones facing lengthy, expensive legal processes, higher-than-necessary taxes, or even family disputes, at exactly the time they can least afford the added stress. 

Estate planning can be a difficult topic to think about, but it is an essential component of your financial plan. With a solid estate plan in place, you put measures in motion that help ensure your wishes are carried out after you’re gone. At GDS Wealth Management, we work closely with our clients to create a financial plan that aims to preserve and manage their wealth for future generations, address estate-tax and other financial considerations in coordination with their legal and tax professionals, support philanthropic goals and causes, and help bring greater confidence to their broader plan. 

Rest assured, even if you don’t yet have a financial adviser, there are concrete steps you can take today to set your loved ones up for future success. Here’s where to start. 

Step 1: Put a Will in Place 

Your will functions as a cornerstone of your estate plan. In it, you’ll name an executor to manage your estate after you pass away and outline how you wish your assets to be distributed. 

To create a will, start by listing your assets. We recommend working with a financial adviser or other professional to confirm that everything — accounts, property, business interests, valuables — is properly accounted for. From there, designate your beneficiaries. Your assets don’t have to be divided equally, though how they pass is governed by applicable law, ownership arrangements, and beneficiary designations. 

You’ll also need to nominate an executor, and in many cases a backup executor, to administer your estate. If you’ve set up a trust for some beneficiaries, you will also need to name a trustee responsible for administering it. Finally, a will must be executed in accordance with state law, and requirements for witnesses and notarization vary. Work with an estate-planning attorney to ensure your will is properly drafted and executed. 

Step 2: Put Key Supporting Documents in Place 

A will handles what happens to your assets after you’re gone — but a complete estate plan also addresses decisions that may need to be made while you’re still living but unable to act for yourself. Three documents are worth prioritizing alongside your will: 

• A durable power of attorney, which authorizes someone you trust to manage your financial affairs if you become incapacitated. 
• A healthcare directive and/or medical power of attorney, which documents your medical care preferences and designates someone to make healthcare decisions on your behalf if you’re unable to. 
• Updated beneficiary designations on accounts like retirement plans and life insurance policies. These designations generally control how those assets pass and may override conflicting instructions in your will, so it’s worth reviewing them any time your will changes or a major life event occurs — marriage, divorce, a new child, or the loss of a loved one. 

Together, these documents help close the gap that a will alone doesn’t cover. 

Step 3: Take Advantage of Available Tax Strategies 

For estates above the federal exemption ($15 million per individual in 2026), or in states with their own estate or inheritance tax, estate taxes can substantially reduce the amount your beneficiaries ultimately receive. A few strategies are worth discussing with your adviser or tax professional: 

Annual gifting. For 2026, the federal annual gift tax exclusion allows you to give up to $19,000 per recipient, unchanged from 2025. The figure is adjusted periodically for inflation, confirm it each year. You can give this amount to as many individuals as you’d like, children, grandchildren, or anyone else, without it counting against your lifetime estate and gift tax exemption. Distributing part of your wealth now allows your beneficiaries to receive it sooner and may reduce future estate taxes. 

Charitable giving. If you plan to leave part of your estate to charity, those contributions can reduce your estate’s taxable value. This is also worth noting directly in your will — you can name specific charities and even indicate the amounts or percentages you’d like each to receive. 

Bypass trusts. For married couples, a bypass trust (sometimes called a credit shelter trust) may help make full use of both spouses’ estate tax exemptions. When the first spouse passes away, the estate plan may direct assets up to the exemption limit into the trust rather than directly to the surviving spouse. The surviving spouse can still receive income from the trust and, in many cases, access to principal, but because those assets sit outside their personal estate, they may not be included in the surviving spouse’s taxable estate. In practice, this can mean meaningfully more of the estate reaches the next generation instead of the IRS. It’s a strategy best set up in consultation with an estate planning attorney or tax professional, since the drafting details matter. 

Step 4: Talk to Your Loved Ones Now 

We recommend discussing your plan with your family before it’s needed, not after. These conversations might feel daunting or uncomfortable, but frank, honest discussions can go a long way toward reducing confusion or conflict later. 

At the very least, make sure your loved ones, and especially your executor, know where to find your important documents, and how to access your accounts — for example, through a password manager. An estate plan that exists but can’t be located when it’s needed doesn’t do the job it was designed for. 

More Than Dividing Assets 

Estate planning is so much more than deciding who gets what. It’s about providing security for the people you care about and helping ensure your wishes are respected. With a strong estate plan in place, you gain the peace of mind that comes from knowing you’ve taken steps to care for your loved ones, however things unfold. 

If you have questions about estate planning, we’d love to help. Please contact our office, we offer a complimentary initial consultation to see if we’re a good fit for your financial needs.