Wills, Estates, and Elder Law

The same Margolis Substack we list under money, because it is the best independent writing on both subjects. His posts on Medicaid planning, trusts, and the five-year look-back are the clearest we have read outside a paid consultation. He also says plainly when a strategy is a bad idea. Start with the archive on long-term care.

Everplans sells a digital vault, but its free article library is the reason to visit. It covers the parts of an estate that lawyers skip: the accounts, the subscriptions, the photos, the phone. The checklists on what to do after a death are the most complete we know of. Use the articles; decide about the product separately.

A podcast about the estate nobody used to have: email, banking apps, cloud photos, two-factor codes on a dead phone. Episodes bring in attorneys, technologists and families who got locked out. Listen to one before you inventory a parent's accounts. It will change what you write down.

A Substack and podcast on aging with dignity, aimed at families preparing for long-term care before the crisis. The writing is advocacy-minded and covers the legal and financial groundwork side by side. Less polished than the others here, and more willing to say what the system gets wrong. Worth a look if you are planning rather than reacting.

Nolo has published plain-language legal guides since the 1970s, and the free encyclopedia is still the best first stop on wills, trusts, powers of attorney and probate. Every entry says what the document does, what it cannot do, and when you need a lawyer anyway. Read here before you read a firm's blog. Then hire the lawyer.

The professional association for attorneys who do elder law and special-needs planning as their whole practice. Its directory is the safest way to find one who is not a generalist doing a will on the side. The consumer Q&A pages are short and honest about cost. Use it once, well.