Free Estate Planning Checklists for U.S. Families

Everything on this page is a direct download. No sign-up, no email address, no account and no book purchase required. Already own Get Your Affairs in Order? This is your free Companion Pack, too.

New here? Start with one page.

Open the Quick-Start Checklist below and begin with “The first hour.” List your key contacts and where your important documents are kept. Work on your own, or together with a parent or someone you trust. You can use the checklist without the book; chapter numbers simply point book owners to more detail.

You do not need to finish everything today. Keep completed worksheets private and share their location only with someone you choose.

The Downloads

The Quick-Start Checklist

A step-by-step checklist, from listing your accounts and document locations to a yearly review. Start with the first-hour section; use the later sections as prompts for questions and follow-up tasks.

PDF · 2 pages · start with the first-hour section

Your State at a Glance — 2026 Edition

All 50 states plus D.C.: small-estate limits, witness rules, handwritten-will rules, and property systems — with the statutory citation for every figure, so your attorney can check the source directly. Refreshed every year.

PDF · 51 jurisdictions · 4 data points each · with citations

The Organizer Worksheets

36 printable pages for organizing accounts, documents, contacts and final wishes. Use the sections that fit your life, whether or not you own the book.

PDF · 36 printable pages · sections A through I

The Yearly Estate Check-up

The complete two-hour routine — seven tasks with time budgets, plus the seven life events that shouldn't wait for Check-up Day.

PDF · 7 tasks · 2 hours once a year

15 Tools & Sites Worth Knowing

The free, official resources your family may need one day — from the life-insurance policy locator to unclaimed-property searches in every state.

PDF · 15 free & official resources

Want the guide that goes with these pages?

Get Your Affairs in Order

A plain-English guide to wills, trusts and digital assets, with a fill-in organizer to bring your important information together. Written for U.S. readers.

The organizer is included in the print editions. Paperback, hardcover and ebook are available on Amazon.com.

View on Amazon.com

About the book & all formats

The downloads above are free. Buying the book is optional.

The Yearly Update List (optional — truly optional)

Estate planning numbers change every year — 2025 alone rewrote the small-estate limits in nine states. If you'd like one email a year with the refreshed state tables and a reminder for your Estate Check-up Day, you can join the update list. Nothing else, ever. The downloads above work without it.

Send me the yearly update

One email a year. You can unsubscribe from any of them in one click, and the downloads above never depend on it.

One Small Favor

If the book helped you get your affairs in order, would you take three minutes to leave an honest review on Amazon? Say what helped and what you'd improve — both are useful to me, and both are useful to the next person standing in front of that shelf, deciding whether to finally start.

Independent books like this one have no publisher behind them. Reviews are how they reach the family who needs them next.

Write a review on Amazon

Everything on this page is yours either way — the downloads have never been tied to anything.

Looking for the sources?

Every figure in the books — the funeral cost medians, the survey numbers, the tax limits — is listed with the study or agency it came from, kept current between editions. Sources & further reading