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The American Bar Association estimates that only half of all Americans have a will or estate plan. An estate plan allows you, in the case of incapacity or death, to continue to provide for your spouse or significant other, your children and other loved ones. A good estate plan will help you to minimize property transfer taxes. It enables you to decide in advance if you want life support and who can make medical decisions on your behalf if needed. You can use your estate philanthropically to ensure the continuation of your charitable work. You can also develop a tax-free special needs trust to ensure that elderly or disabled family members receive the assistance they need.

After your financials are taken care of, you’ve designated a medical power of attorney and you’ve allocated your property (even if you have no major assets), you may want to begin thinking about your ethical legacy. The idea of leaving behind an “ethical will” was described in the Hebrew Bible some 3,000 years ago. An ethical will is a written or spoken document that aims to preserve your values, beliefs, life’s lessons, requests for forgiveness, hopes and blessings for future generations. It also can explain your intentions behind your estate plan. The ethical will can take various forms—letters to individual family members, tape recordings, memories, thoughts, stories of wisdom, personal reflections. It can encompass a page or a book. Whatever you decide to include, let its form mirror your personality and essence.

Writing an ethical will can be a cathartic, meaningful experience in itself. The process helps clarify your values and the imprint you want to leave behind in people’s lives. In her book The Wealth of Your Life: A Step-by-Step Guide for Creating Your Ethical Will, Susan Turnbull puts it perfectly: “Wealth, purposefully transferred from one generation to the next, is not limited to your material assets. Some of your greatest wealth resides within you and is too valuable to be lost.”

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