Estate planning checklist

Updated 2026-10-16 · Expert review in progress

The short answer

In your sixties, an estate planning checklist covers five things: choose the people for each role, sign the core documents, check every beneficiary form and deed, write down what only you know, and tell the right people where it all is. Then review it after any big change.

An estate planning checklist is useful because the work comes in pieces. A document here, a bank form there, a conversation you keep meaning to have. A list lets you do it a little at a time and know when you're done.

This estate planning checklist is written for someone in their sixties, with a home, some retirement savings and maybe a dog. It is part of our guide to estate planning documents, which explains what each document does. Here, the focus is on the order to do things in.

Step 1: Decide who you'd want to act

Start with people, not paper. Every document you sign names someone to carry it out, and a document with the wrong name in it doesn't help.

There are four roles to fill. Our guide to the four roles in every estate plan covers each one in depth.

Health care agent (under a medical power of attorney): talks with doctors and decides if you can't.
Financial agent (under a financial power of attorney): pays bills and deals with the bank.
Executor: settles your estate after death. Our post on the executor of an estate explains the job.
Successor trustee, if you have a trust: manages trust property if you can't, and after death.
A backup for every role, in case the first person can't serve.

Ask each person before you name them. Ask, too, whether they will still be able to do it in fifteen years. If you're single, our post on estate planning for single people covers who to name when there's no spouse in the picture.

Each of these people is a fiduciary, meaning legally required to act in your interest and follow what you wrote. It is a real job, not an honor.

Step 2: Sign the core documents

These are the documents most people in their sixties have in place. Each must be signed under your state's rules; Washington's are cited as the example.

A will, naming your executor and a backup. In Washington it must be signed and witnessed by two or more competent witnesses (RCW 11.12.020).
A durable financial power of attorney. In Washington, a power of attorney ends at incapacity unless it contains durability wording (RCW 11.125.040). Check yours has it.
A medical power of attorney, naming a health care agent and a backup.
An advance directive (in Washington, a health care directive) stating your wishes about life-sustaining treatment (RCW 70.122.030).
A revocable living trust and pour-over will, if they fit your situation. Our post asking do I need a trust helps you decide, and what is a living trust explains how one works.

In Washington, a power of attorney must be notarized or signed before two qualified witnesses (RCW 11.125.050). The witnesses can't be related to you or your agent, or be your care providers.

A POLST, a medical order signed with your clinician, usually comes later, with serious illness. Our post on POLST vs advance directive explains when.

Why the health care documents matter so much

Without a medical power of attorney, Washington law sets the order of who can consent for you. It runs from a guardian, to your agent, to a spouse, adult children, parents, siblings and more distant relatives (RCW 7.70.065). A close friend comes last, and only with a sworn declaration.

Signing a medical power of attorney puts the person you actually trust first. Other states have their own lists.

Step 3: Check every beneficiary form and title

Many of your assets will never pass through your will. They follow a form or a title instead. Washington calls these nonprobate assets, and the list includes payable-on-death accounts, survivorship joint accounts, transfer on death deeds, IRAs and trust assets (RCW 11.02.005).

Retirement accounts (401(k), 403(b), IRA): who is the beneficiary, and is there a backup? The IRS notes that beneficiaries are named under the plan's own procedures (IRS).
Bank and brokerage accounts: is there a payable-on-death or transfer-on-death beneficiary?
Life insurance and annuities: who is named?
Your house deed: how is it titled? In your name, jointly, in a trust, or with a recorded transfer on death deed (chapter 64.80 RCW)?
If you have a trust: has the house actually been deeded into it, and have the accounts been retitled?

Look for forms that still name a former spouse, or someone who has died. In Washington, divorce generally revokes a nonprobate designation to a former spouse, with exceptions (RCW 11.07.010). Still, change the form rather than rely on that.

A beneficiary form usually beats a will. If they disagree, the form generally decides who receives that account.

Step 4: Write down what only you know

The documents say who acts. They don't say how you like things done. That part lives in your head until you write it down.

Your doctors, medications and pharmacy.
Your accounts and where statements arrive, without the passwords themselves.
Bills that are paid automatically, and from which account.
Your pets: the vet, the food, the afternoon walk.
Who has a key, and who waters the plants.
Your wishes for a funeral or memorial.
Your online accounts, photos and email. Our post on digital estate planning covers how to leave access safely.

Our post on the care plan shows one way to organize all of this in a single place.

Step 5: Store it and tell people where it is

A perfect plan in a locked drawer nobody knows about doesn't help much.

Keep the signed originals somewhere safe that can be reached. A safe deposit box only one person can open can be a problem.
Give your health care agent a copy of your medical power of attorney and advance directive.
Ask your doctor to put your advance directive in your medical record.
Tell each person you named where the originals are.
Keep a short list of who has copies.

Step 6: Review it when life changes

Plans drift. People move, marry, divorce, fall ill or die. Accounts get opened and closed.

Review your plan if...	What to check
You marry, divorce or are widowed	Every role and every beneficiary form
Someone you named moves away, falls ill or dies	Name a new person or move the backup up
You buy, sell or refinance a home	The deed, and whether it is in the trust
You open a new account	Its beneficiary form, or its title if you have a trust
You move to another state	Whether your documents follow the new state's rules
Several years pass with no review	Everything, briefly

Your checklist at a glance

Name a health care agent, financial agent, executor and successor trustee, each with a backup.
Sign a will, a durable financial power of attorney, a medical power of attorney and an advance directive.
Decide whether a revocable trust and pour-over will fit, and fund the trust if you sign one.
Check every beneficiary form and the title on your house.
Write down what only you know.
Store the originals and tell people where they are.
Review after any big change.

If the hardest box to tick is the first one, because the people you'd name are your own age or far away, you have company. Our guide to choosing professional help compares family, lawyers and trust companies. A Kinly membership includes the four core documents written for your state, and Trella Trust Company can be named in any of the four roles, first or as backup.

Common questions

What should be on an estate planning checklist for someone in their sixties?

The people you'd name in each role, plus a will, a durable financial power of attorney, a medical power of attorney and an advance directive. Add a trust if it fits. Then check beneficiary forms and your deed, write down what only you know, and tell people where it is.

What is the first step in estate planning?

Deciding who you would want to act for you. Every document names someone: a health care agent, a financial agent, an executor and possibly a trustee. Choosing them first makes the documents straightforward.

How often should I update my estate plan?

After any big change: a marriage, divorce or death, a move to another state, a new home, or someone you named becoming unable to serve. If nothing changes, a brief look every few years catches drift such as old beneficiary forms.

Do beneficiary forms override my will?

For the account they cover, generally yes. Retirement accounts, payable-on-death accounts and life insurance pass to the person named on the form, outside the will. That is why checking every form is part of the checklist.

Sources

This page is general information, not legal or financial advice. Laws vary by state.

Keep reading

DocumentsWhat is a living trust?What is a living trust? A plain guide to how a revocable living trust works, from signing and funding it to what your successor trustee does later.DocumentsDo I need a trust?Do I need a trust if I own a house and a 401(k)? A plain walk through what each asset does at death, the simpler options, and when a trust earns its keep.DocumentsEstate planning documents: what you need and what each one doesEstate planning documents in plain words: what a will, trust, power of attorney and health care directive each do, and who has to act on every one of them.The four rolesThe four roles in an estate plan, and who should fill themWho should I name as power of attorney, executor and trustee? A plain guide to the four roles in every estate plan and how to choose who fills each.