What I Learned About Wills and Trusts
ETHAN LOHR, CFP® | May 2026
I remember when I first started as an advisor and heard the phrase estate planning. I was initially confused.
Here in Albemarle County, we have large estates scattered throughout the rolling hills beneath the Blue Ridge Mountains. That was what an “estate” meant in my mind.
But it turns out I had an estate too.
Except instead of 200 acres with meadows, ponds, and horse stables, my estate consisted of a hand-me-down Chevrolet Suburban along with a checking and savings account.
The reality is that all of us have an estate. For some, it may be substantial. For others, it may be a home, a few accounts, and personal belongings accumulated over a lifetime.
Needless to say, my understanding of estate planning has evolved quite a bit over time.
In fact, my wife and I recently completed our second round of estate planning as a household. Our first set of documents was executed about six years ago before our first child was born. This latest round now includes four kids — and thankfully a little more on the balance sheet than a checking account, savings account, and an old Suburban.
What stood out to me throughout the process is that estate planning is far less about wealth than it is about the transfer and distribution of that wealth. It’s about creating clarity for the people you love and making difficult moments a little easier if something unexpected happens.
What I’d like to share here are a few things we learned throughout the process, along with some practical ways you can begin getting your own planning underway as well.
Will-Based Plan vs. Trust-Based Plan
Initial estate planning is often framed as a choice between a will-based plan and a trust-based plan. Let’s break down those two pathways:
Will-Based Estate Plan
A will-based estate plan centers around a last will and testament. The will outlines:
Who receives your assets
Who serves as executor
Guardians for minor children
Basic instructions for settling your estate
Assets generally remain titled in your individual name during life and transfer through the probate process at death.
Typical Components:
Will
Powers of attorney
Healthcare directives
Beneficiary designations
Trust-Based Estate Plan
A trust-based estate plan typically centers around a revocable living trust. The trust becomes the primary owner of many assets during your lifetime.
You typically serve as your own trustee while alive, maintaining control. At death or incapacity, a successor trustee steps in and manages or distributes assets according to the trust instructions.
Typical Components
Revocable living trust
“Pour-over” will
Powers of attorney
Healthcare directives
Asset retitling into the trust
Naturally, I assumed that if we chose the trust route, a will would no longer be part of the picture.
Not exactly.
It turns out that regardless of which path you take, you’ll still end up drafting a will. These are the kinds of things you learn when you don’t work in estate law every day.
Here’s how a will still plays a role even within a trust-based plan.
First: The “Pour-Over” Function
Most trust-based plans include what’s called a pour-over will. Its job is simple: if anything is left outside the trust when you die, the will directs it back — or “pours it over” — into the trust.
Asset titling is an important component of trust-based planning. In order for an account to be owned by the trust, it must actually be titled in the name of the trust. The pour-over will helps address assets that may not have been properly retitled along the way.
Second: Naming Guardians for Minor Children
A revocable living trust can manage money for children, but the will is generally where you formally nominate guardians for minor children.
For families with young kids, this is one of the most emotionally important parts of the estate plan.
Third: Giving the Probate Court Instructions
Even with a trust, there may still be a limited probate process for assets outside the trust. The will tells the court:
Who should serve as executor
Where assets should go
How final affairs should be handled
To sum it up, a trust-based plan doesn’t eliminate the need for a will. It simply changes the will’s role from being the primary estate document to more of a supporting document.
And by the way, each spouse — even in a married household — still creates their own will. That was another surprise to me. Since we own nearly everything jointly, I assumed there would just be one!
Naming Key Roles
Next came the process of naming individuals to specific roles within the estate plan. These roles include executors, guardians, and powers of attorney for medical and financial decision-making.
These aren’t terms most people deal with every day, so let’s break them down.
Executors: The will is essentially the instruction manual, and the executor is the person responsible for carrying those instructions out.
In many ways, they serve as the final organizer of the estate. Their responsibilities may include providing an accounting to the court, paying debts, handling paperwork, and distributing assets according to the will.
Guardians: Guardians are individuals who care for those unable to care for themselves.
For families with young children like ours, these individuals would handle both day-to-day care decisions and oversight of property inherited by the children.
Powers of Attorney:
Whether for medical or financial matters, powers of attorney designate an “agent” who can act on your behalf if you become unable to make decisions yourself.
The process of identifying these individuals was valuable in and of itself.
Interestingly, we did not review our previous documents before making those decisions again. Looking back, I think that was a good move.
Instead of anchoring ourselves to choices we had made six years earlier, we approached the conversation fresh and asked a simple question:
Who do we genuinely believe is best suited for these responsibilities today?
Last Steps and Execution
After walking through the wills, naming guardians, and establishing powers of attorney, we could have stopped there and still had a solid estate plan. But we decided to add a revocable living trust.
While not necessary, I believed it was the right framework to establish now. Not everything we own today will be titled in the trust, but creating it now provides a roadmap for whoever may eventually step in as executor and/or trustee for our estate.
So how did we actually go about getting all of this done?
At the start of the year, our firm acquired access to Wealth.com, a digital estate planning platform designed to help streamline much of the planning process.
Admittedly, estate planning is not always the most exciting endeavor, and many clients feel the same way. We wanted to explore a solution that could reduce some of the time and cost barriers that often prevent families from getting this type of planning completed.
What I appreciated about Wealth.com is that it takes many of the questions that would traditionally happen back-and-forth between an attorney and client and places them directly into a guided workflow.
Instead of sitting in an office answering questions or filling out lengthy paper questionnaires, you work through the planning process live while the system pre-fills and organizes the documents along the way. For many families, that can significantly improve efficiency and reduce cost.
What I found, however, is that while technology can streamline estate planning, it doesn’t completely eliminate the need for an attorney.
Once you move into more customized planning — particularly around trusts — there are natural limitations to a purely digital process. At some point, you may want more control over the language, distribution provisions, or mechanics of the plan itself.
That’s where experienced legal guidance becomes extremely valuable.
In our case, we ended up using a hybrid approach.
The more straightforward documents — things like wills, healthcare directives, and powers of attorney — worked very well through the digital workflow. But having an attorney draft the trust and provide additional guidance throughout the process was incredibly helpful.
Honestly, it reminded me of something we see often in financial planning as well: the best solution is not always fully traditional or fully automated. Many times, a thoughtful blend of both works best.
We Can Help
Of course, while we cannot provide legal advice, we can help guide the overall planning process by sharing what we’ve seen work well both personally and through our experience working with other households.
If we can help address your estate planning needs, please let us know. Whether it’s helping organize your financial life and planning decisions, or connecting you to the right resources that enable execution of your plan, our goal is to help facilitate more thoughtful and coordinated overall financial planning.
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