The people who most need an estate plan are often the least likely to have one. Not because they don’t care, but because they don’t have the time or the money. That is exactly why we built a free estate planning tool — a simple, no-cost way to put the basics in place.
Ask almost any parent of young children whether they have named a guardian in a legal document, and you will usually get the same answer: “We’ve been meaning to.” Ask an aging parent whether they have a will, and you will often hear the same thing. These are not careless people. They are busy people, cost-conscious people, and people who understandably would rather not spend an afternoon thinking about their own death. The result is that the families who have the most to lose from having no plan are the ones most likely to be caught without one.
We built a free tool to change that. It will not replace a fully tailored estate plan, and it is not meant to. It is meant to give the people who would otherwise have nothing a basic plan they can put in place today, at no cost, in the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee. This article explains why that gap exists, what actually happens to a Missouri family when there is no plan, and why a free stop-gap is better than the alternative almost everyone is living with right now.
Why young families are the ones caught without a plan
This tool solves a narrow and specific problem. It is not that people fail to value estate planning; plenty of families have a plan in place and understand exactly why it matters. The difficulty is that the households who most need a basic plan, parents raising young children, are often the least able to spare the time and money a traditional plan requires. A young family is stretched in every direction: two jobs, small children, a tight budget, and rarely a free afternoon to spend in a law office. The cost of a fully drafted plan, however worthwhile, competes directly with childcare, the mortgage, and everything else a growing family is paying for. So it waits.
The available data supports this. In its 2025 Wills and Estate Planning Study, Caring.com found that adults with children under 18 make up the single largest group of people with no estate planning documents in place, and that the most common reason people give is simply that they have not gotten around to it. For a young family, “not getting around to it” usually means not having the time or the money. The barriers almost always come down to a familiar few.
Cost. A traditional, fully drafted estate plan is worth every dollar, but the price tag is enough to make many families put it off indefinitely.
Time. Between work and children and everything else, scheduling and completing a formal plan keeps sliding down the list.
Discomfort. Estate planning asks people to sit with their own mortality and imagine their children being raised by someone else. It is far easier to close the tab.
Not knowing where to start. Many people simply do not know what documents they need or what the process involves, so they do nothing.
Every one of these is understandable. But none of them changes what the law does when a person dies or becomes incapacitated without a plan. That is the part most people never see coming.
What actually happens when you have no plan
When there is no plan, the state of Missouri has one for you. It is written into the statutes, it applies automatically, and it rarely matches what a family would have chosen. Here is what it looks like in practice.
The state decides who inherits
If you die without a will, Missouri’s intestacy statute, RSMo 474.010, decides who gets what. Many people assume a surviving spouse simply inherits everything. That is not how it works. If you and your spouse share all of the children, the spouse receives the first $20,000 of the estate plus half of the balance, and the children receive the rest. If any of the children are from another relationship, the spouse receives only half, with no $20,000 preference. Blended families are especially likely to end up with a distribution no one intended. If there is no spouse, the estate passes to children, then to parents and siblings, and outward from there — and if no relatives can be found, it can ultimately go to the state.
Everything runs through probate
Without planning tools that avoid it, an estate is settled through probate, the court-supervised process of paying debts and distributing what is left. Probate is public, it can take many months and sometimes more than a year, and it carries court costs and fees that come out of what your family would otherwise receive. For a grieving spouse or adult child, it often means paperwork and delay at the worst possible time.
A judge decides who raises your children
This is the one that should keep parents of young children up at night. If both parents die without having nominated a guardian in a valid document, the choice of who raises the children falls to a probate judge. Under RSMo 475.045, a guardian nominated in a parent’s will is given priority. Without that nomination, the court selects the guardian it finds most suitable for the child’s best interests — which may not be the person you would have chosen, and which can trigger painful disputes between relatives who each believe they know best. A short document naming a guardian is the single most important thing most young families can do, and most have not done it.
No one is authorized to act if you are incapacitated
An estate plan is not only about death. If you are in an accident or develop a serious illness and cannot make decisions, someone needs the legal authority to manage your finances and direct your medical care. Without a financial power of attorney and a healthcare directive, your family may have to ask a court to appoint a guardian or conservator over you — an expensive, public, and slow process, at a moment when they are already frightened and stretched thin.
Doing nothing is not the same as making no decision. When you do nothing, the state and the courts make every decision for you.
Why we built a free estate planning tool
As an estate planning firm, we see the aftermath of the gap far too often: the young family with no guardian named, the blended family surprised by the intestacy formula, the adult children learning that a simple document would have spared them a year in probate court. In almost every case, the problem was not that the family made a bad plan. It was that they never made any plan, usually because a full one felt too expensive or too time-consuming to start.
So we decided to remove the two biggest barriers, cost and time, for the people who need a basic plan the most. Our free estate planning tool walks you through the core decisions in plain language and helps you get a basic plan in place at no charge. It is designed for the parent who has been meaning to name a guardian, and for the person who knows they should have a will but has never found the time to make one.
Why it works
The tool works precisely because it is simple and free. It removes the friction that stops people, and it focuses on the decisions that matter most rather than trying to cover every rare contingency.
It is free. Cost is the number-one reason people put off planning, so we took it off the table.
It is fast. You answer straightforward questions in plain English, without needing to learn the law first.
It focuses on what matters most. Who would raise your children, who receives your things, and who can make decisions if you cannot — the essentials that protect a family.
It gets you off zero. A basic plan you actually complete protects your family far more than the perfect plan you never start.
One practical note: any document is only effective if it is executed correctly. A Missouri will, for example, must be signed and witnessed by two witnesses to be valid. The tool helps you create the documents and understand the signing steps, but you still need to sign them properly for them to count.
A stop-gap, not a substitute
We want to be honest about what this tool is and is not. It is a stop-gap. It gives you the basics, and for many families the basics are exactly what has been missing. But it is not a substitute for tailored legal advice, and some situations genuinely need more: blended families, business owners, larger estates that raise tax questions, a child with special needs who depends on public benefits, property in more than one state, or anyone who wants to avoid probate entirely through a trust. If that describes you, the right move is a conversation, not a form.
For everyone else, the honest truth is that a free basic plan today beats a perfect plan that never happens. Use the tool, protect your family now, and upgrade to a full plan when time and budget allow.
Put a basic plan in place today — for free
If you have been meaning to name a guardian or finally make a will, this is the easiest way to start. Our free estate planning tool takes just a few minutes and costs nothing.
Need more than the basics? Schedule a free consultation for a fully tailored plan.
Helpful resources
• RSMo 474.010 — Missouri intestate succession (dying without a will)
• RSMo 475.045 — Guardianship of a minor child
• Missouri Probate Code (Chapter 473)
• Missouri Courts — official self-help and probate information
This article and the free estate planning tool are provided for general educational purposes and to help Missourians put basic protections in place. They are not legal advice, do not create an attorney-client relationship, and are not a substitute for a plan tailored to your specific circumstances. Documents must be executed according to Missouri law — including proper signing and witnessing — to be legally valid. For blended families, business interests, larger or multi-state estates, special-needs planning, or probate avoidance, consult a qualified Missouri estate planning attorney. Statutory references are to the Revised Statutes of Missouri (RSMo Chapters 473, 474, and 475).