Author: Richmond Cariaga

There is a famous scene in The Wizard of Oz where Dorothy steps into the magical Land of Oz and is transported from a black-and-white world to a Technicolor one.

The phrase in living color originates from TV and film advertising in the mid-20th century, when black-and-white imagery was standard and color television was a novelty. It represented something more vibrant and lifelike: Viewers were seeing real people rendered in natural color, often for the first time.

What started as a literal description of color TV technology has transformed into a cultural idiom for expressive and authentic portrayal. That shift can also apply to your estate plan, taking it from a purely formal black-and-white documentation process to a more vibrant representation of your life in its varied hues and tones.

There are many ways to add color to your estate plan—ways that help paint a true-to-life picture of who you are within the standard planning canvas.

Estate Planning Can Let You Show Your True Colors

What is the first thing you think of when you hear the term estate planning?

It may be paperwork or attorney meetings mixed with a fair amount of legalese and difficult decisions like who should receive what, who should be in charge, equal versus fair inheritance shares, and end-of-life preferences.

Estate planning does involve all these things, expressed through documents such as wills, trusts, powers of attorney, and advance medical directives. But estate planning is also much more than that. 

Here are several ways you can start to color in your estate plan, moving beyond a black-and-white collection of documents to a more expressive representation of who you are in your many roles as a family member, a friend, a philanthropist, and the artist behind your legacy.

1. Ethical Wills: Adding Subtle Tones to Standard Documents

Estate planning documents are designed to be clear, legally enforceable, and objective. They are written in precise legal language to ensure that your wishes can be carried out as intended. Ethical wills serve a different (although complementary) purpose. They are personal, nonbinding documents that allow you to share your values, experiences, and perspective with your loved ones, in your own words.

How ethical wills work:

• Separate from a legal will or trust and carry no legal force
• Can be written, recorded, or compiled in multiple formats
• May include life lessons, family history, cultural traditions, or personal reflections
• Typically shared with family members during life, but may be included with estate planning documents to be shared at death

How ethical wills add color to an estate plan:

• Explain the values and experiences that shaped your decisions
• Preserve stories and history that do not appear in formal documents
• Humanize distributions that may otherwise feel impersonal or confusing to loved ones
• Give your voice permanence long after you can no longer speak for yourself

While a legal will may control inheritance outcomes, an ethical will provides context, continuity, and connection for your beneficiaries. It does not need to be lengthy or literary. Even a short ethical will, written in your own words, can add warmth, depth, and dimension to an estate plan by helping loved ones understand not just what you decided, but why. You can think of it as mixing standard colors to create a new tone.

2. Philanthropic Passions: Generous Brushstrokes That Build Shape and Texture

Charitable giving can provide financial benefits, including potential tax advantages. But for most people, its purpose runs deeper: It is an expression of identity, gratitude, and personal beliefs. Philanthropy allows your estate plan to reflect what matters to you beyond your immediate loved ones, including the causes you support, the communities you care about, and the values you hope to encourage for future generations.

How philanthropic planning works:

• Often incorporated through bequests in a will or a trust
• May involve charitable trusts, donor-advised funds, or direct gifts
• Can be structured during life, at death, or across generations
• Often coordinated with broader financial and tax planning goals

How philanthropy adds color to an estate plan:

• Translates personal values into lasting impact
• Tells beneficiaries what you stood for, not just what you owned
• Creates a sense of continuity between generations
• Offers a shared purpose that can bring families together

Donations large enough to earn a named building or library wing are beyond most people’s gifting budget. However, even modest charitable provisions can build texture and depth into an estate plan by showing how your values extend beyond the frame of family and finances. They serve as subtle accent colors that draw the eye inward and give a plan dimension.

3. Sentimental Items: Smaller Strokes That Show Personality 

Not everything that matters in an estate plan is measurable in dollars. Personal belongings—jewelry, artwork, letters, heirloom quilts, collections, photo albums, or other meaningful everyday objects—can carry emotional weight that far exceeds their financial value. For example, an old painting that hung above your desk may be coveted by a family member because it reminds them of you, even if it has little financial value. These items help tell stories, reflect relationships, and preserve memories in ways formal documents and financial accounts cannot.

How planning for sentimental items works:

• Items can be addressed through a personal property memorandum or list referenced in estate planning documents
• Instructions may be updated over time without changing core estate documents
• Preferences can account for emotional significance that transcends monetary value
• Conversations with family can strengthen written guidance to avoid misunderstandings

How sentimental items add color to an estate plan:

• Highlight relationships and shared history that numbers cannot capture
• Reduce conflict over sentimental items by clarifying your intentions in advance
• Keep alive family stories attached to specific objects
• Allow meaning to live beside ownership

4. Letters of Intent: Filling in the Fine Details

Whereas an ethical will focuses on values, reflections, and meaning, a letter of intent is practical and instructional. This nonbinding document is designed to guide the people carrying out your estate plan by explaining how certain day-to-day decisions should be implemented. Letters of intent do not change legal outcomes but provide clarity where formal documents must remain intentionally limited and can be especially useful when planning for a beneficiary with special or highly specific needs.

How letters of intent work:

• Supplement a will or a trust without carrying legal force
• Share preferences, routines, and expectations that do not belong in formal documents
• Frequently used to guide executors, trustees, guardians, or caregivers
• Commonly updated as circumstances, needs, or family dynamics change

How letters of intent add color to an estate plan:

• Explain the reasoning behind decisions that may otherwise feel opaque
• Add nuance to instructions that legal documents must keep general
• Help fiduciaries act with confidence instead of guesswork
• Express personal priorities that cannot be reduced to legal language

While an ethical will helps tell your story in broad strokes, a letter of intent sharpens the image by layering in detail and direction. This is the fine brushwork carefully overlaid on the broader composition to ensure that what you intended is not only understood but carried out as you envisioned.

5. Family Conversations: Paint the Full Picture in Words

Even the most thoughtful and vibrant estate plan can appear flat if the people it affects are not part of a bigger discussion that makes the context clear. Family conversations are where your vision becomes visible, giving loved ones insight into your values, priorities, and reasoning before those ideas are filtered through documents, emotions, or assumptions.

How family conversations about your estate plan work:

• Can take place gradually rather than all at once
• Focus on values and intentions, not mere dollar amounts
• Usually include spouses, adult children, fiduciaries, or other key decision-makers
• May coincide with planning milestones or life transitions

How family conversations add color to an estate plan:

• Reveal the motivations behind decisions that may otherwise surprise or confuse loved ones
• Reduce misinterpretation and resentment by setting expectations early
• Help loved ones see your plan as intentional and not arbitrary
• Build trust by sharing perspective as well as intended outcomes

You do not need to present a finished masterpiece to start these conversations. Simply sharing rough sketches, such as what matters to you, what you hope to pass on, and what you want to avoid, can bring the bigger picture into focus. Family conversations are the “director’s cut” of your estate plan: the narrative that allows others to see what went into the production.

6. Incentive Trusts: Guiding the Brush Without Controlling the Hand

Incentive trusts are sometimes misunderstood as tools for control (specifically, “control beyond the grave”). Understood properly, they are tools for guidance that help you shape outcomes by connecting financial support with values you care about (i.e., education, work, service, or responsible stewardship) while still giving beneficiaries room to grow into their own lives and decisions.

How incentive trusts work:

• Distributions are tied to specific milestones or behaviors
• Popular incentives include achievement of certain education, employment, caregiving, or community involvement milestones
• Terms are typically set out in a trust and administered by a trustee
• Flexibility can be built in to account for changing circumstances

How incentive trusts add color to an estate plan:

• Reflect what you value in addition to what you want to fund
• Provide structure without rigid control
• Encourage engagement, purpose, or responsibility
• Signal intention that feels less like judgment

When used with a specific heir and their circumstances in mind, incentive trusts can avoid imposing a single vision of success. Instead, they can offer gentle guidance and direction without prescribing every step. In an estate plan, they function like guiding lines beneath the paint. Those just starting out or struggling can benefit from the underlying structure while having some freedom for personal touches.

7. Living Legacy Projects and Other Ways to Paint an Estate Plan

Every aspect of a legacy does not need to be captured in legal documents or even the nonlegal documents that accompany them. Some of the most meaningful expressions of legacy are created alongside the estate plan rather than inside it. Family legacy projects are a way to preserve stories and experiences that do not neatly fit into formal planning but may matter just as much.

How legacy projects work:

• Created or co-created during life with family members
• May exist in digital, written, audio, or visual formats
• Can be shared informally or referenced in estate planning documents
• Able to evolve over time; do not have to be completed all at once

Examples include recorded video interviews with family members, digital scrapbooks or photo archives for online sharing, illustrated family trees, or “story maps” that trace ancestors’ migration from other parts of the world. Families may also create music playlists, recipe collections, or written reflections that capture traditions, identity, and special everyday moments that pass quietly between major milestones.

How legacy projects add color to an estate plan:

• Incorporate voices, stories, and perspectives that legal documents cannot express
• Create connection across generations that complements asset distributions
• Invite loved ones to participate in shaping the legacy together
• Turn memories into something tangible, shareable, and enduring

Newer tools make this kind of preservation even more accessible. Services such as Remento send prompts to loved ones and record their spoken responses as digital keepsakes while others, such as Storyworth, Meminto, Memorygram, and StoryCorps, offer different ways to capture written stories, audio interviews, and multimedia family histories.

Legacy projects can function like an informational placard placed in front of your finished work or a pamphlet visitors take home. They help explain what others are seeing and make the process feel more inclusive. A legacy project may be the last part of your plan, created after the paperwork is signed and filed, but it could have the greatest emotional impact.

If you are feeling like Dorothy stuck in a black-and-white world, an estate planning lawyer can help you step into Technicolor and express your legacy with your own unmistakable artistic stamp.

Many people have a childhood memory of somebody close to them passing away. Whether the deceased was a parent or grandparent, an aunt or uncle, or a family friend, it may have been their first real encounter facing grief or attending a funeral.

That experience may have left a lasting impression, influencing what you want—or do not want—for your own memorial. For many families, traditional services offer comfort and continuity; for others, a conventional funeral may feel disconnected from the life being honored.

In addition to options such as cremation, more Americans are exploring memorial alternatives that include celebrations of life and even living funerals. Whatever your preferences, you may wish to plan for your memorial services well ahead of time.

Death Planning Is Part of Estate Planning

An estate consists of everything you own when you die, including your house, your car, and your personal possessions as well as your bank accounts, investments, and retirement funds.

When you die, certain people (e.g., an executor of your estate or a close relative) can generally exercise rights over your body including its proper disposal. However, you may want to make your wishes known by putting a plan in place. That plan should also include how the arrangements will be paid for.

Without a binding estate plan that instructs people how to handle your remains, their disposition, like the disposition of your assets, is left up to those with authority. That means your spouse, children, parents, or siblings usually decide what to do with your body. They may do what they think is best, but that may be a far cry from what you imagine for yourself.

According to a 2025 survey, two-thirds of Americans have thought through their end-of-life arrangements in detail, including the type of service, its location, and the music to accompany it. Ten percent of them say they have gone as far as determining the “overall mood” they want for the occasion; nearly one in five say they think about their own death at least once per day.¹

But thinking about death and planning for it are two very different things. In the same study, death and estate planning ranked as the second-most-difficult subject to discuss with loved ones. One-quarter called the topic “uncomfortable.”

Talking through death and estate planning, though, may not be nearly as uncomfortable—or as burdensome—as leaving family members to decide how to dispose of your body if you have not decided ahead of time, clearly stated your wishes in a legal document, and set aside money for the arrangements.

The funds to pay for your funeral, burial, or memorial services come out of your estate. These expenses have high priority and are generally paid before most other debts. However, without a plan that includes payment considerations, only “reasonable” costs are typically covered. More detailed or extravagant funeral or celebration-of-life expenses may be reduced or not covered.

Research from Choice Mutual estimates that the average cost in 2026 of a traditional funeral with burial is approximately $8,000–$9,000.² Funeral fees can also quickly expand: Add in $50–$80 per flower arrangement, $2,500–$5,000 for a funeral plot, a few thousand dollars for a grave marker, plus more (e.g., another $150–$600 to release white doves), and costs can quickly move beyond what is likely to be considered “reasonable.”³

A common way to pay for burial and funeral costs is with a life insurance or final expenses policy. Other ways to pay include putting cash in a savings account, prepaying a funeral home for the service, setting up a payable on demand (POD) account, or, as a last resort, selling off assets after death.

But the second-most-popular option, per Choice Mutual’s research (“my family will figure it out”) is revealing.⁴ It shows that people may be thinking about their death and mentally planning their memorials but not formally documenting their wishes in an estate plan. Failing to do so could result in a situation where your loved ones have no plan to follow and no funds set aside for your end-of-life wishes. You may be fine with that and resigned to whatever they choose. But if you want your loved ones to celebrate your life your way, you need to plan ahead and consider professional support long in advance.

Intentional Planning and Traditional Funeral Alternatives

You may not be able to choose how you die. But you have some say in how you are remembered and the legacy you leave. That legacy ends—or depending how you look at it, begins—with your send–off ceremony. More Americans are opting for newer or alternative burial options, which may include more personalized, eco-friendly, and tech-enabled funeral services.

Living Funerals

A living funeral is a memorial or celebration held while the person being honored is still alive.⁵ Rather than focusing on loss, these gatherings center on connection, reflection, and shared memories, with the honoree often present and involved. They can range from formal services with readings and speeches to informal dinners or parties and may be private or open to a broader community. A living funeral does not have to replace final disposition. Burial, cremation, or another method may still occur later and should also be planned.

Why People Choose This Option

• The honoree has an opportunity to hear stories, receive gratitude, and participate directly.
• It creates meaningful memories while time and health allow.
• It shifts the focus from loss to celebration and connection.

Logistics and Cost Considerations

• Costs resemble those of any private event and depend on venue, guest count, and food.
• Expenses are incurred during life, with separate costs later for disposition.
• Clear documentation helps ensure that postdeath plans align with expectations.

Celebrations of Life

A celebration of life is typically held after death and differs from a traditional funeral in tone and structure.⁶ The body is usually not present, which allows greater flexibility in timing and location. These events focus on personality, values, and shared experiences and are often held weeks or months later in meaningful settings such as homes, parks, event spaces, or places tied to the deceased person’s hobbies or passions. Some individuals may wish to provide specific directions for such celebrations while they are alive. For example, they may want a particular color scheme, a specialty menu, or a specific memento to be provided as a parting gift to guests.

Why People Choose This Option

• It offers greater flexibility in timing, location, and tone.
• There is an emphasis on storytelling and shared memories.
• It feels more personal and less formal than a traditional service.

Logistics and Cost Considerations

• No embalming or viewing is required.
• Costs vary based on venue, catering, and programming.
• Burial or cremation expenses are handled separately.

Cremation with a Flexible Memorial

More Americans are choosing cremation than ever before.⁷ Because cremation may occur shortly after death, memorial services can be planned later without the urgency sometimes associated with burial. Memorials may be held days, weeks, or months later, with cremains present, handled privately, or incorporated into multiple gatherings depending on family needs and geography.

Why People Choose This Option

• It provides flexibility in timing and memorial format.
• There are lower baseline costs compared with traditional burial.
• It is easier to accommodate multiple or delayed gatherings, which may be especially important if loved ones need to arrange travel.

Logistics and Cost Considerations

• Cremation typically has lower upfront costs than burial.
• Memorial costs depend on scale, timing, and location.
• Additional costs may include urns, interment, or scattering.

Green or Natural Burial Options

Green or eco-friendly burials focus on reducing environmental impact by avoiding embalming, vaults, and nonbiodegradable materials.⁸ The body is placed in a biodegradable container or shroud and interred in a natural burial ground designed to return remains to the earth. Memorial services may mirror traditional ceremonies or take the form of simple, nature-focused gatherings held on-site or elsewhere.

Why People Choose This Option

• It aligns with their environmental and sustainability values.
• They prefer simplicity and minimal materials.
• They desire a return-to-nature approach.

Logistics and Cost Considerations

• Availability varies by region and cemetery.
• Cemetery fees and burial materials affect total cost.
• Advance planning is often required due to limited locations.

Technology-Enabled and Virtual Memorials

Technology-enabled memorials use digital tools to supplement or replace in-person services, including live-streamed or recorded ceremonies, hybrid gatherings, or fully virtual memorials.⁹ These options allow loved ones to participate remotely and are often paired with online planning platforms that let families arrange services and complete paperwork without visiting a funeral home. Direct cremation is frequently offered through online providers, further separating disposition from memorial planning.

Why People Choose This Option

• Distant or travel-limited loved ones are able to participate.
• Timing and format are flexible.
• It reduces logistical pressure during a difficult time.

Logistics and Cost Considerations

• Virtual or hybrid services can reduce venue and travel costs.
• Online direct cremation is often among the least expensive options.
• Reliable setup and clear communication are essential.

Other Alternatives

In addition to the options above, some families are exploring newer approaches that reflect changing values and circumstances:

• Human composting, where legally available, is an environmentally focused disposition option that requires advance planning and coordination.¹⁰
• Private family memorials with a public service later allow close loved ones to grieve first, followed by a larger gathering when emotions are less raw.
• Living or ongoing memorials can take the form of scholarships, charitable funds, tree plantings, or annual gatherings tied to a meaningful cause or activity.

These alternatives may not be right for everyone, but they offer options that may feel more inclusive and authentic to some people than the traditional model for memorial planning.

From Ideation to Action: Tips for Executing Your End-of-Life Plans

Thinking intentionally about your memorial is the first step in a bigger planning picture. Putting your ideas into a form others can follow turns preferences into something practical and meaningful.

Document your memorial wishes. Memorial preferences are most effective when they are written down and easy to find. Depending on how detailed you want to be, your documents may include the following:

• A will, for high-level direction
• A letter of instruction, outlining logistics and preferences
• An ethical or legacy will, explaining the values or meaning behind your choices

Sharing your wishes is just as important as documenting them. Talking through your plans with family members or trusted decision-makers helps set expectations and reduces uncertainty during an already emotional time.

Think about the experience you want to create. You do not need to plan every detail, but considering the overall feel of the event can provide helpful guidance. Your choices may take the following into consideration:

• The desired atmosphere or tone (formal or informal, religious or secular, reflective, celebratory, etc.)
• Venue preferences or meaningful locations
• Music, readings, or activities that reflect your personality or beliefs

Add personal touches if they matter to you. Small details can make a service feel more personal without adding complexity. For example:

• Memory boards or photo slideshows
• Message jars with notes from attendees that can be given to surviving loved ones as a source of comfort or symbolic as words of farewell
• Meaningful food or drink choices
• Simple favors tied to your hobbies, interests, or favorite things

Consider professional support where it adds clarity and follow-through. Planning a memorial commonly involves more than one type of expertise. Depending on the complexity of your wishes, the following helpful professionals may be involved:

• Funeral directors, who can explain disposition options, coordinate services, and outline cost considerations
• Celebrants or officiants, especially for religious or highly personalized services
• Event planners, for larger celebrations or nontraditional venues
• Estate planning attorneys, who can help document memorial wishes appropriately, coordinate them with the rest of your estate plan, and ensure that instructions are legally consistent and easy to follow

Have a plan to pay for it. Deciding how it will be funded is just as important as deciding what you want. Memorial and funeral costs are typically paid from your estate and typically come due quickly. Planning ahead can reduce financial stress and timing issues for your loved ones.

• Set aside funds in a dedicated savings account.
• Use a life insurance or final expense policy.
• Prepay certain services in advance.
• Coordinate beneficiary or POD designations to ensure that funds are accessible.

We need to be just as practical about our deaths as we are about our lives. Combining your payment plan with your memorial wishes helps ensure that cost does not become a barrier to carrying out your intentions, whatever they are.

Your choices about how you are remembered may fall squarely within the traditional or fall outside what is considered normal. But it is your life, and you may wish to ensure that it is memorialized and celebrated your way.

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1. Two-Thirds of Americans Have “Planned” Their Funerals, But Majority Avoid Estate Planning Conversations, StudyFinds (Sept. 30, 2025), https://studyfinds.org/americans-planned-funerals-avoid-estate-conversations. ↩︎
2. Anthony Martin, How Much Does A Funeral Cost?, Choice Mutual (July 22, 2025), https://choicemutual.com/blog/funeral-cost. ↩︎
3. Id. ↩︎
4. Anthony Martin, 2025 Survey Results: How Technology Is Reshaping Funeral Preferences, Choice Mutual (June 13, 2025), https://choicemutual.com/blog/funeral-preferences. ↩︎
5. Jeanne Sager, What Is a Living Funeral? A New Perspective on Celebrating Life, Care.com (Dec. 8, 2025), https://www.care.com/c/what-is-a-living-funeral-celebration-of-life. ↩︎
6. What Is a Celebration of Life?, Mem’l Plan., https://www.memorialplanning.com/resources/funerals/what-is-a-celebration-of-life (last visited Feb. 24, 2026). ↩︎
7. Americans Choosing Cremation at Historic Rates, NFDA Report Finds, NFDA (Sept. 18, 2025), https://nfda.org/news/media-center/nfda-news-releases/id/9772/americans-choosing-cremation-at-historic-rates-nfda-report-finds. ↩︎
8. What Are the Different Types of Eco-Friendly Burials?, Return Home, https://returnhome.com/what-are-the-different-types-of-eco-friendly-burials (last visited Feb. 24, 2026). ↩︎
9. Sare Marsden-Ille, Death Care Disrupted: How Cremation and Tech Are Changing the Funeral Industry, USFuneralsOnline (Nov. 15, 2024), https://www.us-funerals.com/death-care-disrupted-how-cremation-and-tech-are-changing-the-funeral-industry. ↩︎
10. Sarah Vallie, What Is Human Composting?, WebMD (Jan. 5, 2023), https://www.webmd.com/balance/what-is-human-composting. ↩︎

You have probably heard of the gender pay gap. But there is also another common disparity: the estate planning gender gap.

Although the two are interrelated to some extent—earning less than men puts women on an unequal path to investment and retirement savings, and women generally spend more than men on healthcare in retirement—the specific reasons behind the gap in estate planning deserve their own consideration.

The overall rate of estate planning in the United States is low, with less than one-quarter of Americans having a basic will.¹ Within those already low numbers, men are more likely than women to have formal estate plans. This disparity is due not simply to differences in income or asset levels but also to timing, priorities, and the roles men and women tend to occupy over the course of their lives.

Closing the estate planning gap may be addressed at an individual level through education, conversations, and professional guidance.

From the Pay Gap to the Planning Gap

The gender pay gap—the average difference in earnings between women and men—shows that women typically earn less than their male counterparts for similar full-time work. While the gap has narrowed over time and varies across groups and locations, it has persisted for decades.

At the same time, women generally need larger nest eggs than men due to having a longer life expectancy (81 years for women versus 76 years for men).² Living longer can also result in higher healthcare costs in retirement. Retirement healthcare cost estimates are $150,000 for men and $165,000 for women.³

Yet women are less likely than men to have an estate plan—a gap that can magnify the financial risks created by gender disparities in earnings, savings, and longevity.

Strategies for Proactive Planning

Closing the gender gap in estate planning is about more than just drafting documents; it is about ensuring that your financial legal structure is as resilient as your life demands. Here is how to take command of the process.

Prioritize literacy over technicalities. Estate planning is often shrouded in highly technical legal language that can serve as a barrier to entry. Focus first on foundational concepts: how a trust protects privacy, how powers of attorney ensure continuity of care, and why healthcare directives are essential for maintaining autonomy.

Align your estate plan with your values. For many women, wealth management is a tool for stability. Form your estate plan as a protection strategy rather than just a transfer of assets. By focusing on preserving independence and reducing the burden on loved ones during times of uncertainty, the planning process becomes a proactive extension of your existing responsibilities.

Initiate conversations early. Do not put off having conversations with partners and beneficiaries to clarify decision-making roles and values. Treating these discussions as business meetings for the family removes the emotional weight and ensures that your intentions are documented long before they are needed.

Demand transparency and clarity. Estate planning can sometimes feel abstract. Insist on clear projections, such as charts or summaries that outline exactly who makes decisions under specific circumstances. If a professional cannot explain a strategy in clear, actionable terms, they are not the right partner for your goals.

Adopt an iterative approach. An estate plan is a living document, not a static event. Given that women often navigate complex career paths and caregiving roles, your plan should be reviewed every three to five years. Start with the essentials, such as naming healthcare decision-makers or organizing key documents, and introduce more complex trust or tax strategies as your assets and life circumstances evolve.

Partner with professionals who value your perspective. Estate planning should feel open and collaborative. Seek out financial and legal professionals who practice active listening and respect your goals and concerns. A good advisor should act as a collaborator, translating legal and financial complexity into strategic choices that reflect your reality.

If you are ready to talk about savings, retirement, and wealth management in a way that reflects the modern realities of women, reach out to us to start the conversation.

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1. Danika Miller, Worst States in Which to Die Without a Will in 2025, Caring (Feb. 11, 2025), https://www.caring.com/resources/worst-states-to-die-without-a-will-2025. ↩︎
2. CDC: Life Expectancy Up, Mortality Down in 2023, Am. Hosp. Ass’n (Dec. 19, 2024), https://www.aha.org/news/headline/2024-12-19-cdc-life-expectancy-mortality-down-2023. ↩︎
3. Javier Simon, You’ll Need Way More Money Than You Think for Health Care Costs in Retirement, Money (May 16, 2022), https://money.com/healthcare-costs-retirement-fidelity-study-2022. ↩︎

Noncitizen spouses are treated differently than US citizen spouses for estate and gift tax purposes.¹

They do not get the unlimited marital deduction. Married US citizen spouses can generally transfer unlimited amounts of money between each other during life or upon death in various qualifying ways without any gift or estate tax concerns. This unlimited marital deduction delays any estate taxes until after the survivor dies. However, lifetime gifts to a noncitizen spouse and inheritance upon a citizen spouse’s death for a surviving noncitizen spouse are not eligible for the unlimited marital deduction.

Instead, a US citizen spouse should set up a qualified domestic trust (QDOT), which gives their noncitizen spouse the benefit of the unlimited marital deduction while ensuring that any taxes due will be paid after the noncitizen spouse passes away. There are special rules governing QDOTs. For example, the noncitizen spouse must generally be the trust’s sole beneficiary while alive, and there must be a US trustee. The noncitizen spouse generally receives all the income that the trust property generates during the remainder of the survivor’s lifetime, but generally cannot receive principal without incurring an estate tax penalty.

Jointly owned property is treated differently. If a married couple jointly owns a home, it is generally assumed to belong to both spouses equally when both are US citizens, with each spouse owning a 50 percent share of the home. Therefore, when either spouse dies, only 50 percent of the value of the shared asset is included in the deceased spouse’s estate for estate tax purposes. However, if one spouse is a noncitizen, this presumption may not apply. For example, if the US citizen spouse dies first and the jointly owned home is worth $200,000, the entire $200,000—instead of $100,000—will be included in the deceased spouse’s taxable estate unless the noncitizen spouse proves they have contributed a certain amount toward the home.

There is no unlimited gifting. Generally, US citizen spouses can make unlimited gifts to each other during life without having to pay the federal gift tax, as long as the gifts qualify for the unlimited marital deduction. However, if a US citizen spouse makes a gift to their noncitizen spouse that exceeds the annual limit ($194,000 for 2026), the gifting citizen spouse may need to either use a portion of their lifetime exemption to cover the amount in excess or incur a gift tax liability.

Remember state estate and inheritance taxes. Depending on where a couple lives, state estate or inheritance taxes may apply even if no federal tax is due, because the thresholds for state estate taxes may be lower than the threshold for federal estate taxes.

Contact Us

Regardless of the citizenship status of your family members or loved ones, it is crucial to create a well-thought-out estate plan to provide for them in the way you intend and to minimize your potential tax liability. Contact us today to design an estate plan that addresses your unique circumstances and needs.

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1. This has nothing to do with immigration status. ↩︎