Estate Planning Attorney Advice on Getting Your Estate Plan in Order in 2026

As we welcome 2026, many of us are thinking about ways to improve our lives and protect our families. However, New Year’s resolutions often focus on short-term ambitions, i.e. going to the gym, taking up a new hobby, or breaking bad habits. While these goals are admirable, they’re also the ones that are most likely abandoned by February.

This year, let’s end that cycle by making a resolution that provides immediate peace of mind and long-term protection—creating or updating your estate plan.  

At Plakas Mannos, our estate planning team is here to help you accomplish a resolution that won’t get pushed aside, forgotten, or abandoned. An estate plan is a lasting investment in your future—one that shields your family, safeguards your assets, and ensures your wishes are honored. Plakas Mannos can help you in creating or updating an estate plan as your New Year’s Resolution!  

Why Estate Planning Should Be Your 2026 Resolution 

Estate planning isn’t just for the wealthy or elderly. Every adult—regardless of age, family structure, or financial status—benefits from having clear, legally binding instructions in place. Whether you want to make sure your home passes smoothly to loved ones, protect your business with a succession plan, establish care instructions for your children or pets, avoid unnecessary Probate Court involvement, or simply ensure your wishes are followed, an estate plan helps to achieve those goals. The New Year is the perfect time to put a solid foundation in place.

What Are Some Basic Estate Planning Tools You Should Consider?  

When considering an estate plan, individuals are often unsure as to the various avenues to consider. While the estate planning lawyers at Plakas Mannos are here to guide you through this process, a few initial items to consider include:  

1. Will – A Will gives you the ability to decide where and to whom your estate (the assets and property you own) will go following your death, as well as who will take care of your minor children and/or pets, if applicable. A Will helps to reduce or eliminate disputes between loved ones over who gets what and can help reduce or eliminate any estate and/or inheritance taxes that may apply. Without a Will, the state—not you—determines these matters; 
2. Financial Power of Attorney – A Financial Power of Attorney provides someone you trust with the ability to access and manage your assets should you become incapacitated. In the event of a tragic occurrence that causes you to be unable to make financial decisions for yourself, the execution of a Financial Power of Attorney helps alleviate unneeded stress upon loved ones who will now be able to access you financial accounts and make any payments on your behalf that may be necessary for medical treatment, caring for your minor children or pets, staying up to date on mortgage or vehicle payments, managing real estate or business matters, etc. This document prevents your loved ones from being forced into unnecessary legal proceedings just to help you;  
3. Healthcare Power of Attorney – A Healthcare Power of Attorney provides someone you trust with the ability to make critical medical decisions on your behalf. This individual will be the one who medical professionals look to for crucial questions concerning your care and medical treatment while you remain incapacitated;  
4. Living Will – A Living Will definitively establishes your end-of-life wishes should you become permanently incapacitated with no chance of recovery. In such a circumstance, the Living Will allows you to pre-determine how such a situation will be handled, removing the anxiety of making this decision from your loved ones during a crisis;  
5. A Transfer on Death (“TOD”) Affidavit – A TOD Affidavit can be executed such that your home will transfer to your selected beneficiary or beneficiaries upon your death without the time, cost, and complexity of Probate Court. 

Does My Situation Require More Advanced Estate Planning Strategies? 

Once these basic mechanisms are in place, we can also help guide your though more complex estate planning decisions that you may want to consider in order to provide for the future of your family such as business succession planning, trust administration, philanthropic planning, private equity investing, as well as an array of various other estate planning mechanisms. Such mechanisms are particularly important for individuals with unique considerations including but not limited to, families with special needs children, small business owners, high net-worth individuals, etc.  

By way of example, families with special needs children may want to consider setting up a trust to provide for the care of their child throughout the remainder of their life, given that unique provisions are often required to ensure that the child is properly provided for. By the same token, a trust is especially valuable to high-net-worth individuals so as to minimize any estate tax that may apply or to avoid immature decisions by their children should the individual unexpectedly pass. In short, there are a variety of avenues to consider depending on the unique circumstances surrounding a particular individual and their assets.

Get Started on Creating an Estate Plan with Plakas Mannos 

Once your estate plan is completed, it requires minimal upkeep. Updates can be made as your life changes—marriage, children, major purchases, business growth, or retirement—but the hardest part is simply getting started. 

Make 2026 the year you give yourself and your family the peace of mind that comes with a thoughtful, comprehensive estate plan. Reach out to the estate planning attorneys at Plakas Mannos to assist you with an estate plan now so that we can help you with this New Year’s Resolution.  

Give our team a call today at 330-455-6112 to see how we can help you create a successful estate plan and take the first step towards a secure future.

About the Author 

Hunter Miller, an associate attorney,  focuses on estate, trust, and wealth planning; estate, trust and probate administration; estate, trust and probate litigation; commercial litigation, and other practice areas.