You're going to die. Let's talk about it.
If you don't have a will, you still have one. Your state wrote it. You've never read it.
It's called the intestacy statute. When you die, it hands your stuff to a fixed list of relatives, in a fixed order, and a judge picks who runs the whole thing. You don't get a vote. You're dead.
Depending on your state, the partner you never married isn't on that list. The stepkids you raised aren't on it, unless you adopted them. Your best friend, your godchild, the dog rescue you've given to for a decade: not on it. The relative you haven't spoken to in eleven years? Still on it.
National Estate Planning Awareness Week was this week. Replacing the state's version takes about ten minutes and costs nothing. Scroll down and do it before you forget again.
THE NUMBERS
24%
of U.S. adults say they have a will. Caring.com, 2025.
51
jurisdictions covered by the free will builder. All 50 states and D.C.
$0
to build it, download it, and print it. No account. No card. No catch.
DO / THIS WEEK'S ONE THING
Write your will tonight. Ten minutes. Free.
Six sections. You. Your executor. A guardian, if you've got kids under 18. Who gets specific things. Who gets the rest, by percent (it won't let you stop at 99). Your two witnesses. A full Last Will and Testament builds in a live preview while you type.
Download it as a PDF or Word file, print it, or email it to yourself. Then sign it the way your state requires. Before you do, the page sends you to your state's witness and notary rules. Pick witnesses who get nothing under it.
Blended family, a business, property in two states, or an estate someone might fight over? That's lawyer territory, and the builder tells you so.
READ / WHO GETS WHAT
Who inherits when you don't decide
Everyone outside that line gets nothing from the probate estate. Everyone inside it inherits, whether you liked them or not. Run out of qualifying relatives and the state keeps it.
WORTH KNOWING
Your 401(k) doesn't care about your will. Life insurance, 401(k)s, IRAs, pensions, and payable-on-death accounts skip the line above and go to whoever is named on the form. Even a 2011 form. Even if it names your ex. A will doesn't override it. A divorce doesn't reliably update it. Property you own jointly with a right of survivorship goes to the other owner the same way. Pull every form and read the name on it.
If you have kids under 18. Your will is where you name who raises them. The court makes the final call. In California, a parent's signed nomination gets due weight. No nomination, and the court decides with whatever information it has.
Every claim in the story is cited to its source at the bottom. Check our work.
TALK / QUICK POLL
Where do you land?
Be honest. Do you have a signed will right now?
If you're not in the first group, the pink box above is for you.
TALK / ONE QUESTION, ANSWERED
What happens to property and investments held in a trust when one spouse dies?
Asked on mortl.com/ask
Short answer: nothing dramatic, which is the point of the trust. If the house and the accounts are titled in a revocable living trust, none of it goes through probate. The trust owns them. The successor trustee it names takes over and runs them under its terms. Anything still in the person's own name goes through probate, usually under a pour-over will.
When it's a couple's trust, the surviving spouse is almost always the continuing trustee, so you keep managing everything until the second death. Read the document anyway. Some couples' trusts split in two at the first death, and one half becomes irrevocable. That changes what you can do with it.
To get it moving: certified death certificates, the trust plus every amendment, and a certification of trust to each bank and brokerage so the accounts get retitled. Debts and taxes get paid before anyone gets a distribution.
Got one of your own? Ask it. Nothing is too dark, too dumb, or too early.
READ / LAW WATCH
Alabama now protects living organ donors
Most of Alabama HB 361 took effect October 1. Life, disability, and long-term care insurers can't decline you, limit your coverage, or charge you more only because you're a living organ donor, unless the donation adds actuarial risk. Public employees with a year of service can request up to 30 days of paid donor leave (7 for bone marrow). Private employers that offer at least 15 paid days can claim a state tax credit starting January 1, 2027. Work for a private company in Alabama? Forward this to HR.
CORRECTION
On September 13 we said Washington's $3 million estate tax exemption wouldn't rise with inflation. We were wrong. Under ESB 6347, it adjusts each year for inflation starting with deaths in 2027, and the adjustment can't lower it. The 2027 figure isn't set yet. The Washington guide · ESB 6347, session law
TALK / SEND THIS TO SOMEONE
Someone you love is on the state's version too.
Only 24% of adults say they have a will, so most of the people in your contacts don't. Pick one. Forward this with your link below, and when they subscribe, you get paid in the only currency we have.
1 referral: the printable 33-item end-of-life checklist. 3: The Executor's First 90 Days, our book for the person you name in your will. 10: a month of MORTL Premium.
BUY / THE FOLDER
A will nobody can find is a will you don't have.
You wrote it. Now put it where your executor can get to it at 2am. The Folder is one organized record of your key contacts, where your documents are, and your wishes, shared read-only with up to five people you trust. It comes with all 14 Premium planning tools. $59, once. Nothing renews. Nothing to cancel.
Run HR, or know who does? MORTL for Employers is $2,500 the first year for up to 250 employees, then $6,000 a year at that size. The first five companies get extra. The page says what.
READ / NEW ON MORTL.COM
The homepage now starts with a question.
Where are you right now? Pick the closest of six answers and it sends you to the right starting point. A Free Document Builders tile lists every free builder: will, healthcare power of attorney, living will, financial power of attorney, and funeral budget.
Make a free account and the dashboard hands you one thing a day for 30 days, with the 33-item checklist and your progress on top. See it.
Write the will this week. Handle it once. Handle it right.
Go live your life.
Stephanie Werner
Founder & CEO, MORTL
P.S. If you write your will tonight, hit reply and tell me. I read every one.
Sources and MORTL links checked on October 24 and 25, 2026. U.S. guidance. General information, not legal advice.
How to read the Dispatch: pink outline is the one thing to do this week. Black is the numbers. A black header is your turn to talk. Pink fill costs money. A pink bar is worth knowing. White is for reading.