Most families have a will. Almost none have a document that tells a spouse, adult child, or executor where every account lives, who's named on it, and what the first three calls should be. That gap is what a family continuity plan closes — not a replacement for your estate plan, but the operating manual underneath it.
A continuity plan isn't one document, it's a coordinated review across everything that determines what happens to your money if you're not the one managing it.
Every IRA, 401(k), life insurance policy, and annuity passes by beneficiary form, outside of probate, regardless of what your will says. We pull every form and check it against your current wishes and your estate documents.
A full inventory of what you own, how each account is titled — individual, joint, trust — and where it actually lives. This is the map your family won't have to reconstruct from statements in a drawer.
A plain-language guide to your financial strategy: what each account is for, how it's invested, and the reasoning behind it, so a spouse or successor isn't starting from zero.
A structured family meeting, on your terms, to introduce the plan to a spouse, adult children, or the person who'll eventually be in charge, before it's needed rather than after.
Making sure your executor, power of attorney, and trusted contact actually know they're named, know how to reach us, and know where the plan lives.
Life changes — marriage, divorce, births, new accounts, a job change that moves a 401(k). We revisit the plan every year so it reflects the family you have now, not the one you had when you signed the forms.
We see this in almost every new client engagement: a well-drafted will and a properly funded trust, sitting alongside retirement accounts — often the largest assets in the estate — still pointed at beneficiaries named a decade or two ago.
Naming the wrong beneficiary, titling an account incorrectly, or leaving a family with no idea where to start isn't a legal failure. It's an operational one. It's fixable, and it's one of the highest-impact, lowest-cost things we do with every client.
Continuity planning isn't a one-time project. It's a standing part of the relationship, reviewed on the same cadence as the rest of your financial plan.
We gather every account, policy, and beneficiary form, and map how each one is titled and owned.
We build a plain-language document your family can actually use, cross-checked against your will and trust.
On your terms, we walk your spouse, kids, or successor through the plan while you're there to answer questions.
Every year, or after any major life event, we revisit the plan so it never goes stale the way most beneficiary forms do.
A complimentary, no-obligation review of where your beneficiaries, account titling, and estate documents stand today — and where the gaps are. Tell us a bit about your situation and we'll follow up within one business day.
Prefer to talk first? Call (302) 203-9634 or schedule a call directly.
A written, current record of what you own, how it's titled, who's named as beneficiary, where the accounts live, and what your spouse or family should do first if something happens to you. It's built to be usable by someone who isn't a financial professional, under stress, without you there to explain it.
They overlap but they're not the same. Your will and trust are legal documents drafted by an attorney that establish who inherits what. A continuity plan is the operational layer underneath: making sure your accounts are actually titled and your beneficiary forms actually match those legal documents, plus a plain-language guide your family can use. We coordinate directly with your estate attorney rather than replacing them.
No. Many clients start continuity planning before their estate documents are finalized, or use it to surface the gaps that send them to an attorney in the first place. If you already have an attorney, we'll work from your existing documents. If you don't, we can refer you to one we trust.
At minimum, once a year, and any time there's a major life event: marriage, divorce, birth, death, a new account, or a job change that moves a 401(k). We build the annual check-in into ongoing client relationships so it doesn't quietly go stale the way most beneficiary forms do.
Yes. Continuity planning sits at the intersection of your investment accounts, your tax situation, and your estate documents. We coordinate with your CPA and estate attorney directly, or can introduce you to ones we work with regularly, so the plan is consistent across all three.
The initial continuity review assessment is complimentary and carries no obligation. If you become a client, ongoing continuity planning is included as part of our fee-only financial planning relationship, not billed separately.