At what age should you start estate planning?

You should start estate planning as soon as you’re 18 or older and either (1) own any assets like bank accounts, business interests, or property, or (2) have loved ones who depend on you, like children, a spouse, or pets. You don’t need to be wealthy, retired, or have every decision mapped out. The important thing is to get started. This article covers the life events that should trigger an estate plan, what happens in Georgia if you don’t have one, and exactly what to do today to get the process moving.

After more than a decade as an estate planning attorney in Georgia, the phrase I probably hear most often from new clients is some version of: “I’ve been meaning to do this for years.” Usually, a major life event finally pushed them to take action, like a friend’s unexpected death, a health scare, a new baby, or a business that suddenly became valuable. Something made it real.

I understand the hesitation. Estate planning forces you to think about things most of us would rather avoid, like what will happen to the people we love when we’re no longer there to take care of them. It’s easy to keep pushing it to next quarter or next year, when things “settle down.”

But here’s what I’ve learned from working with hundreds of Georgia families: the cost of waiting is almost always higher than the cost of planning. And the life events that make an estate plan feel urgent are often the same ones that make it hardest to focus on it.

So let’s talk about when to start—and why the answer is “right now.”

The minimum net worth for estate planning

This is the most persistent myth I encounter: that estate planning is for ultra-wealthy people with complicated assets and teams of advisors. Even the word “estate” makes it sound like you need a manor house and an heir to the family fortune, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

If you have a bank account, a home, a retirement fund, or a child who depends on you, you have an estate worth planning for. If you don’t make a plan, the state of Georgia will make one for you.

Georgia’s default plan, called intestate succession, is a rigid legal formula that distributes your assets to relatives in a prescribed order, regardless of your actual wishes, your relationships, or your family dynamics. It doesn’t account for chosen family, like friends who are closer to you than your blood relatives. It doesn’t recognize unmarried partners, who have no inheritance rights under Georgia law. And it hands a judge the decision about who raises your minor children.

When should you create a new estate plan (or review the one you have)?

Marriage

Marriage is one of the clearest signals that it’s time to create or update an estate plan. You now have a partner whose financial security is intertwined with yours, and Georgia law’s default rules may not protect them the way you’d expect.

A marriage is also a good time to revisit beneficiary designations on retirement accounts, life insurance policies, and bank accounts. If your IRA still names your parents or an ex-spouse, marriage alone won’t change that.

Having or adopting children

Children change everything, both emotionally and legally. Without a will, you have no say in who raises your child if something happens to you. A court will appoint a guardian for any minor children, and this decision may not align with your personal preferences. The court will do its best, but it doesn’t know your family, your values, or your wishes for your child’s upbringing. 

Beyond guardianship, a trust lets you control how and when your child receives their inheritance. Without one, any assets left to a minor are typically managed by a court-supervised conservatorship until the child turns 18, at which point they receive everything outright (regardless of whether they’re equipped to manage it).

A well-crafted estate plan lets you name a trusted guardian, appoint a trustee to manage assets on your child’s behalf, and specify distributions to control when and how they receive their inheritance.

Buying real estate

Real estate is one of the largest assets you’re like to own, and it’s one of the most complicated to transfer without a plan. Property titled solely in your name goes through probate when you die. In Georgia, probate is public, court-supervised, and can drag on for months. Your family could be left waiting on a court process while mortgages, property taxes, and maintenance costs continue.

A revocable living trust (with your property properly titled in its name) transfers real estate to your heirs immediately and without court involvement. If you own multiple properties or investment real estate, the way you structure, title, and integrate those properties into the rest of your plan is even more important.

Starting, buying, or selling a business

Business owners face estate planning challenges that go well beyond what most general guides cover. What happens to your business if you die? Who has the authority to keep it running, make payroll, sign contracts, or sell it? Without proper planning—including a business succession plan and coordination with your personal estate plan—the answer may be “no one,” or “a court-appointed administrator who doesn’t understand your industry.”

Selling a business also triggers estate planning considerations. Suddenly, you have liquid assets that need to be accounted for, invested, and protected. The structure of your estate plan should reflect your assets as they are today, not as they were five years ago.

Divorce or remarriage

Divorce and remarriage are two of the most common reasons people have estate plans that no longer reflect their wishes. In Georgia, divorce doesn’t automatically revoke beneficiary designations. If your ex-spouse is named on your IRA, life insurance policy, or payable-on-death bank account, they may still receive those assets regardless of your divorce decree. This is one of the most consequential and most overlooked details in the post-divorce financial checklist.

Remarriage creates its own complexity, especially when children from a prior relationship are involved. How do you provide for a new spouse while protecting your children’s inheritance? How do you handle the assets you brought into the marriage versus the assets you’ve built together? These are the questions a well-drafted estate plan is designed to answer.

Moving from another state

Estate plans are state-specific documents. A will or trust drafted in another state is not automatically invalid in Georgia, but it might not work the way you expect—particularly if it was drafted to comply with laws, tax rules, or probate procedures different from Georgia’s.

If you’ve recently moved to Georgia, a review with a Georgia-licensed estate planning attorney is well worth your time. The goal is to make sure your current plan still does what you originally intended under Georgia law.

Receiving an inheritance or sudden windfall

A sudden increase in assets changes your estate planning picture in ways that deserve attention. What you owned last year may look very different from what you own today, and an outdated plan might distribute those assets in ways that no longer make sense.

This is also a moment when tax planning becomes even more relevant, particularly if the windfall pushes your estate closer to the federal exemption threshold or creates new income-generating assets.

A major health change

Nothing makes estate planning feel urgent faster than a health diagnosis, whether it’s your own or for someone you love. And yet this is also the moment when people often delay, because they’re overwhelmed and it’s hard to focus on paperwork.

But certain estate planning documents, particularly powers of attorney and advance healthcare directives, require the person signing them to have legal capacity. If you wait until a health crisis is in full swing, you may lose the ability to execute these documents at all. At that point, a court has to appoint someone to act on your behalf, at significant time and expense, and the person may not be who you would have chosen.

What happens if you don’t have an estate plan in Georgia?

• A judge chooses your children’s guardian. Without a will naming a guardian, a Georgia probate court will decide who cares for your kids. The court will try to act in the child’s best interest, but it doesn’t know your family, your relationships, or your preferences.

• Your assets are distributed by a formula. Georgia’s intestacy laws favor blood family over friends, domestic partners, and charities. If there are people or causes you care about that fall outside that legal definition of family, they receive nothing.

• Your estate goes through probate. If there are assets to be passed down, the chances are high that the estate will go through probate, where the court will appoint an administrator who makes decisions about what happens next. This process is public, time-consuming, and costly.

• Unmarried partners receive nothing. Georgia law does not grant inheritance rights to unmarried partners; only legal spouses and blood relatives are recognized. If you and a long-term partner have built a life together, but you’re not legally married, your partner has no automatic claim to anything.

• Your family may not be able to access money right away. Accounts titled solely in your name may be frozen while your estate is sorted out. Without a trust or joint accounts with survivorship rights, your family may struggle to cover immediate expenses.

• The state of Georgia could receive your assets. If the state can’t find any heirs, your estate’s property could escheat to Georgia, making it official state property. This is rare, but it can happen when decedents have no plan and no identifiable heirs.

5 steps to start your estate plan today

• Step 1: Take stock of what you have. Make a simple list of your assets, including real estate, bank accounts, retirement accounts, life insurance policies, business interests, and any significant personal property. Note whose name is attached to each asset and whether there are beneficiary designations in place.

• Step 2: Identify the gaps. Do you have minor children with no named guardian? Property titled in your name alone with no trust? An ex-partner still named as beneficiary on a retirement account? These will need attention first. If you aren’t sure where there are gaps, don’t worry—a qualified estate planning attorney can help you identify them.

• Step 3: Gather the names of key people. Who would you want to serve as guardian for your children? Who would you trust to manage your finances if you were incapacitated? Who should serve as trustee of your assets? Who is your healthcare proxy? You don’t need final answers today, but starting to think about these names is a useful first step.

• Step 4: Download a resource. My free ebook, Peace of Mind Through Estate Planning, walks through how estate planning works in Georgia, the difference between wills and trusts, how to avoid probate, and what questions to bring to your first attorney meeting. It’s designed to make that first conversation more productive.

• Step 5: Book a strategy session. Estate planning is not something you want to DIY or piece together from articles online (including this one!). An attorney who understands your full picture can tell you what you actually need and in what order. Click here to book a strategy session with me.

Frequently asked questions

When should I start estate planning? 

As soon as you have assets, relationships, or dependents you care about. Practically speaking, the life events most likely to make estate planning genuinely urgent are getting married or divorced, having children, buying property, starting a business, or moving to a new state. If any of these apply to you, now is the right time.

Do I need an estate plan if I’m still young and healthy? 

Yes, and this is precisely when estate planning is easiest! You have time, clarity, and capacity to make thoughtful decisions without the pressure of a health crisis or an urgent deadline. The documents that protect you during incapacity, like powers of attorney and healthcare directives, are especially important to have in place before you need them. By the time you need them, it may be too late to sign them.

What is the minimum net worth that requires an estate plan? 

There is no minimum. If you have a bank account or retirement fund, own property, or have a child who depends on you, you need an estate plan. 

What happens if I die without an estate plan in Georgia? 

Your assets are distributed according to Georgia’s intestate succession laws. If you have a spouse and children, your spouse may receive as little as one-third of your estate. If you have an unmarried partner, they receive nothing. If you have minor children, a court appoints their guardian. Your estate goes through probate, which is public and can take many months. An estate plan prevents all of this.

How often should I update my estate plan? 

A good rule of thumb is every three to five years, and after any major life event: marriage, divorce, a new child, a significant change in assets, or the death of someone named in your plan. Beneficiary designations should be reviewed annually.

Can I do estate planning myself without an attorney? 

Online will-making tools exist, and for very simple situations, they may be better than nothing. But they don’t account for your particular family dynamics, the coordination between documents, or the proper titling of assets into a trust. A DIY plan that’s incomplete or incorrectly executed can create more problems than it solves, and you won’t be around to help fix it. Working with a qualified estate planning attorney is an investment in getting it right.

How long does it take to create an estate plan? 

A comprehensive estate plan (including a revocable living trust, pour-over will, powers of attorney, and healthcare directive) typically takes about six hours of your time over 2-4 weeks from the initial strategy session to signing, depending on the complexity of your situation and how quickly decisions are made. The hardest part is getting started.

Does moving to Georgia mean I need a new estate plan? 

You might not need a new one, but a review is a good idea. Georgia has specific laws around probate, spousal inheritance, and property titling that may affect how your existing plan operates. A Georgia estate planning attorney can review what you have and identify anything that needs to be updated under Georgia law.

Is estate planning just about what happens when I die? 

No. A complete estate plan also addresses incapacity: who manages your finances if you cannot, who makes healthcare decisions on your behalf, and how your family avoids a court-supervised guardianship process during an already difficult time. In some ways, incapacity planning is more likely to be needed than death planning.

The best time to create an estate plan is now

There is no perfect moment to start estate planning. There will always be something more pressing, more urgent, and more immediate demanding your time and attention. But the families who navigate loss and transition most gracefully are almost always the ones who planned ahead.

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