Money and death — estate and inheritance

Death makes explicit what life kept implicit: who you trusted, what you valued, and what you believed about your obligations to those who survive you. An estate plan is not a morbid document but a final act of care — the articulation of intentions that, if left unstated, will be resolved by strangers applying default rules you may not have chosen. What you leave, and to whom, is among the most consequential financial decisions you will never see the result of.