Sarah D. McDaniel, CFA

Aug 03, 2026

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August Is Make-A-Will Month: Are Your Clients as Covered as They Think?

Every August, National Make-A-Will Month gives you a natural reason to raise a topic most clients quietly avoid: what happens to their assets, their minor children, and their wishes if they become incapacitated or pass away. It’s a low-pressure calendar hook for a high-value conversation and it’s one worth having with every client and prospect, not just your largest accounts.

Only about a quarter of American adults currently have a will in place. That statistic alone should tell you how much opportunity sits untouched in your book of business. And for the clients who do have documents, many haven’t looked at them in years, meaning a marriage, divorce, new child, relocation, or a sold business may have quietly made their plan obsolete.

Why having a will doesn’t avoid probate

This is the misconception worth clearing up first: a will does not avoid probate, the court process that validates a will and oversees how an estate gets distributed. It simply gives the probate court instructions to follow. Without a will or with one that’s improperly executed, a client’s estate is settled according to their state’s intestacy laws: the default rules a court applies when there’s no valid will to follow, and they rarely match what the client actually wanted. That can mean:

• A judge, not the client, decides who raises their minor children
• Assets pass to family members in a state-mandated order that may not reflect who the client actually wanted to provide for
• Unmarried partners typically receive nothing
• The process moves through a public, court-supervised process that can consume a meaningful share of the estate’s value and take many months (sometimes years) to resolve

Even a well-drafted will still requires probate. The real differentiator is proper use of trusts and other non-probate transfer tools. That’s the only way to actually avoid the delays, costs, and loss of privacy that come with probate. It’s the conversation worth having proactively this August, before a client’s family has to learn these distinctions the hard way.

Segment the conversation: taxable vs. non-taxable estates

For non-taxable clients: pour-over will and revocable living trust

For clients comfortably below current federal and state estate tax exemptions ($15M for individuals and $30M for married couples federally in 2026, though several states set their own, often much lower, thresholds), the priority isn’t tax mitigation. It’s probate avoidance, privacy, and control.

• Revocable Living Trust – The client transfers (“funds”) assets into a trust during their lifetime, typically serving as their own trustee and retaining full control. Because the trust, not the individual, legally owns those assets, they pass to beneficiaries without probate once properly funded. It also provides continuity if the client becomes incapacitated, since a successor trustee can step in without court involvement.
• Pour-Over Will – This works alongside the trust as a safety net. Any assets the client acquires later and never gets around to retitling into the trust are “poured over” into it at death. It won’t itself avoid probate for those stray assets, but it ensures nothing accidentally falls into intestacy or ends up outside the plan.

The combination gives most clients a private, efficient, easily updated plan without paying for complexity they don’t need.

For estate-taxable clients: bypass trust funding and irrevocable trusts

For clients whose estates may approach or exceed the federal thresholds or who live in one of the states (or D.C.) that impose their own estate tax — all of which, except Connecticut, have a lower state-level exemption (Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, or D.C.), the planning conversation shifts from probate avoidance alone toward actively reducing the size of the taxable estate. Here are two strategies worth considering:

• Bypass trust funding within the revocable trust – For married clients, this means making sure the revocable trust is drafted and funded to direct assets at the first spouse’s death into a bypass trust (also called a credit shelter or family trust) rather than passing everything outright to the surviving spouse. This uses the deceased spouse’s estate tax exemption at their first death, sheltering future appreciation on those assets from estate tax at the second spouse’s death, and can provide asset protection for the survivor and heirs. It’s a piece that’s easy to draft correctly and still get wrong operationally. Usually the pour-over will moves probate assets into the revocable trust so the bypass trust gets funded; and if assets are titled jointly or carry beneficiary designations that route them straight to the surviving spouse, federal portability lets the survivor carry over the deceased spouse’s unused exemption for use at their own death. So the exemption itself is rarely lost — what’s lost by relying on portability alone is the appreciation sheltering, since only assets held in the bypass trust grow outside the survivor’s taxable estate.
• Irrevocable trusts – For clients who need to go further than what a revocable trust structure can accomplish, incorporating irrevocable trusts moves assets (and their future growth) out of the taxable estate altogether, since the client gives up direct control and ownership. Depending on the client’s goals, this can take different forms from vehicles designed to remove life insurance proceeds from the estate, to structures aimed at transferring appreciating assets to the next generation, to strategies that shift income or asset growth to beneficiaries. The right structure depends heavily on the client’s specific assets, family situation, and risk tolerance which is exactly where a coordinated conversation between you and an estate planning attorney adds the most value.

The key message for these clients: the goal isn’t just “avoid probate,” it’s actively shrinking what’s counted in the taxable estate while making sure documents that are already in place (like a revocable trust) are actually structured and funded to do the job.

For both non-taxable and estate-taxable clients: testamentary trusts

Regardless of whether your estate is taxable, testamentary trusts can play a key role in  your estate plan. A testamentary trust is created within the will itself and only comes into existence after death, once the will is probated. It’s commonly used to:

• Manage and control how/when inheritances are distributed to minor children or beneficiaries who may not be ready to manage a lump sum
• Provide for beneficiaries with special needs without disrupting eligibility for government assistance
• Address blended-family situations where outright distributions could create conflict
• Layer in tax planning provisions intended to preserve more wealth for heirs

Because a testamentary trust is created through the probate process, it doesn’t avoid probate the way a funded revocable trust does. For clients, it’s often one piece of a broader plan that may also include lifetime trusts or gifting strategies. It remains a foundational tool for controlling distributions after death.

Turning this into action

The conversation above is easy to have once, but turning it into a signed, funded plan for every client in your books is the harder part. This is where Vanilla fits into your August outreach:

Vanilla Document Builder lets you invite clients into a guided software that produces state-specific estate planning documents including wills, revocable trusts, powers of attorney, and healthcare directives. It’s structured around a few packages, so you can help guide your client to the right level of planning:

• Essentials Package – healthcare directives and financial powers of attorney for clients who mainly need lifetime protection, not dispositive planning (a plan for distributing assets after death)
• Will Package – a low-maintenance plan with guardian appointments, for clients comfortable with probate
• Basic Trust Package – probate avoidance, asset protection, and post-death management for non-taxable clients
• Advanced Trust Package – adds tax planning provisions for clients near or above federal or state estate tax thresholds

The Vanilla Attorney Network is a centrally managed network of 100+ estate planning professionals across all 50 states, with flat-fee pricing. This option is available when a client’s situation calls for more tailored drafting, such as a testamentary trust addressing complex tax or family circumstances, or when they need to directly engage an attorney for legal advice. Clients can request access from within Vanilla Document Builder. Together, these let you run both tracks (self-guided documents for straightforward, non-taxable clients and attorney-supported planning for taxable or complex situations) from a single platform. 

Your August make-a-will month checklist

1. Audit your book. Flag clients and prospects with no will/trust, or documents older than 3–5 years, or predating a major life event (marriage, divorce, a new child, a move, a business sale). Our Estate Plan Audit Checklist walks through exactly what to look for.
2. Segment by tax exposure. Route non-taxable clients toward foundational documents (pour-over will and revocable trust); route taxable clients toward attorney-supported advanced trust planning.
3. Correct the biggest misconception up front. Make sure clients understand that a will alone does not avoid probate. This reframes the conversation around what actually does.
4. Give every client a concrete next step. Whether that’s an invitation to Vanilla Document Builder to generate or update their documents,  or a warm handoff to the Vanilla Attorney Network, don’t let the conversation end without action attached.

Estate planning gaps are one of the few practice risks that are entirely preventable with a proactive nudge and August hands you the calendar-perfect reason to send it.

The information provided here does not constitute legal, financial, or tax advice. It is provided for general informational purposes only. This information may not be updated or reflect changes in law. Please consult with an estate attorney, financial advisor, or tax professional who can advise as to your particular situation.