Level 2: Basic Protection (The Smart Minimum)
The Setup: A properly drafted will, durable financial power of attorney, healthcare directive, and maybe a guardian nomination for your kids. All state-specific, all legally executed.
What Changes:
- You choose who raises your kids — not a judge guessing
- You choose who handles your money — not a court appointee
- You decide your medical care wishes — not your family arguing about what you’d want
- Your estate goes through informal probate — faster, cheaper, less drama
- Your family saves $5,000-15,000 compared to dying without a plan
Level 2 is where I want every family to be at minimum. It’s the seatbelt of financial planning. It doesn’t prevent the accident, but it dramatically reduces the damage.
The Cost: $1,500-$3,000 for a comprehensive will-based plan. Less than your last vacation. Less than your monthly car payment. About 2 hours of your time.
The Limitation: Your estate still goes through probate. That means 6-12 months of court process, your financial details become public record, and your family still has to navigate the legal system while they’re grieving. It’s manageable, but it’s not invisible.
Who Level 2 Is Perfect For:
- Young families with straightforward situations
- Modest estates (under $500,000)
- Single-income households where most assets are jointly owned
- Anyone who wants basic protection without overthinking it
Level 2 isn’t perfect. But it’s a thousand times better than Level 1. If you’re currently at Level 1, don’t try to jump to Level 3. Get to Level 2 first. Today.
Level 3: Complete Protection (The Full System)
The Setup: A revocable living trust, pour-over wills, powers of attorney, healthcare directives, guardian nominations, and possibly an asset protection strategy. Everything funded, everything coordinated.
What Changes:
- Zero probate. Your family never steps foot in a courtroom.
- Total privacy. Nobody knows what you have, who gets it, or how your family is structured.
- Immediate access. Your spouse or trustee can manage everything within days, not months.
- Incapacity protection built in. If you can’t make decisions, your successor trustee steps in seamlessly — no court, no petition, no waiting.
- Multi-generational control. You can structure distributions for kids at 25, 30, 35 instead of dumping everything on an 18-year-old.
- Tax efficiency. For larger estates, significant federal tax savings through proper trust structure.
- Business continuity. If you own a business, your trust ensures it keeps running without interruption.
Level 3 is the operating system your family runs on after you’re gone. It’s not just a set of documents — it’s a complete system designed to make the worst day of your family’s life slightly less terrible.
The Cost: $3,000-$6,000 for a comprehensive trust-based plan. More upfront than Level 2, but it eliminates the $10,000-25,000 in probate costs your family would face otherwise. It’s the most cost-effective thing you’ll ever spend money on that you hope nobody ever needs.
Who Level 3 Is For:
- Families with kids (especially minor children)
- Estates over $500,000
- Business owners
- Blended families
- Anyone who owns real estate in more than one state
- People who value privacy
- Anyone who wants their family to deal with grief, not paperwork
The Level-Up Framework
Here’s the part nobody tells you: moving up a level is shockingly simple. It’s not a years-long process. It’s not a massive financial commitment. It’s a decision followed by a couple of hours of action.
Level 1 → Level 2 (The Fastest Win in Personal Finance)
Time required: 2 hours
Cost: $1,500-$3,000
Emotional difficulty: Low — you’re just answering questions you already know the answers to
What you need to decide:
- Who raises your kids if you can’t? (You already know this.)
- Who handles your money if you can’t? (Probably your spouse, then your sibling or parent.)
- Who makes medical decisions for you? (Same person.)
- Who gets your stuff? (You know this too.)
That’s it. Those four questions are 90% of a basic estate plan. The other 10% is making sure the documents comply with your state’s laws and are properly signed and witnessed.
The objections I hear every week:
- “We’re too young.” — The families I see in crisis are overwhelmingly 30-50. Not 80.
- “We don’t have enough assets.” — It’s not about money. It’s about who raises your kids and who makes decisions for you.
- “We’ll do it when things settle down.” — Things never settle down. You have four kids, a job, and a mortgage. When exactly is “later”?
- “We can’t afford it.” — You can’t afford not to. The alternative costs your family 5-10x more.
Level 2 → Level 3 (The Strategic Move)
Time required: 3-4 hours
Cost: $3,000-$6,000
Emotional difficulty: Medium — requires thinking through scenarios you’d rather not think about
This is less urgent but more impactful. Once you have the basics at Level 2, you can take your time planning Level 3. But don’t wait forever — the whole point of estate planning is that you can’t predict when you’ll need it.
The trigger points for Level 3:
- You buy a house (congratulations, you now have a probate-worthy asset)
- You have kids (the trust lets you control when they get their inheritance)
- You start a business (without a trust, your business could die with you)
- Your estate crosses $500,000 (including retirement accounts and life insurance)
- You get married for the second time (blended family planning is complex)
The Question That Changes Everything
Here’s what I tell every family that sits down in my office:
“Imagine the worst day of your family’s life. Now imagine that day with a plan in place, and then imagine it without one. Which version do you want your family to live through?”
Nobody answers that question wrong.
The gap between Level 1 and Level 2 isn’t knowledge — I just gave you that. It’s not money — it costs less than a weekend getaway. It’s not time — it takes less than a single afternoon.
The gap is action.
You now know more about estate planning than 90% of Americans. You know what level you’re on. You know what’s at risk. You know what it costs to fix it.
The only question left is: what are you going to do about it?
Quick Self-Assessment: What Level Are You?
You’re at Level 1 if:
- ☐ You don’t have a will
- ☐ You don’t have a power of attorney
- ☐ You’ve never named a guardian for your kids in writing
- ☐ Your plan is “everything’s in both our names, it’ll be fine”
- ☐ You’re reading this article and feeling slightly uncomfortable
You’re at Level 2 if:
- ☐ You have a signed, state-specific will
- ☐ You have a durable financial power of attorney
- ☐ You have a healthcare directive
- ☐ Your guardian nominations are in writing
- ☐ You review your plan every 3-5 years
You’re at Level 3 if:
- ☐ You have a funded revocable living trust
- ☐ Your trust is coordinated with pour-over wills
- ☐ Your beneficiary designations align with your trust
- ☐ You have an incapacity plan that doesn’t require court
- ☐ Your family knows where everything is and who to call
Most families reading this are at Level 1. Some are at Level 2. A few are at Level 3.
Wherever you are, the next level is closer than you think.
Jon Miller is an estate planning attorney licensed in Utah, Arizona, and Texas. He’s spent 13+ years helping families level up their estate plans — from “I should probably do something” to “my family is completely protected.” He also teaches estate planning at local universities, which his students find slightly more interesting than they expected. His four kids remain unimpressed, but they’ll thank him later.
