Category: The Wealth Counselor

Almost every parent asks their child, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” The answer is almost never “caregiver to my aging parents.” But the reality of caregiving in America means that many adult children end up in this role, whether they intend to or not. 

Planning takes on a different dimension when a client does not have adult children to help manage the logistics of growing older.

Without an adult child to coordinate daily care, housing, and the necessary financial resources, the dynamic changes. Since there is rarely a private or public entity to fully cover these gaps, the planning burden falls squarely on the client to proactively build long-term and end-of-life care into their overall strategy.

The Typical Role of the Family Care Team 

The scale of family caregiving helps contextualize what may be missing when a client ages in the absence of adult children. 

According to AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving, more than 51 million Americans—nearly one in five adults—provide care to someone age 50 or older.¹ Nearly one in four care for someone age 50 or older with a memory issue or dementia, and many care for a parent.² 

These adult caregivers spend an average of 26 hours per week providing care.³ Collectively, family caregiving is valued at around $1 trillion annually.⁴ It makes up a crucial component of the nation’s long-term care system, much of which is not covered by Medicare or traditional private health insurance and is covered by Medicaid only when strict financial and other eligibility requirements are met. 

The Department of Health and Human Services puts the situation succinctly, calling family caregivers the “backbone of our nation’s long-term care system.”⁵

When There Is No Adult Child in Charge

An aging client who does not have an adult child to help manage their care needs to build a team around them before a crisis limits their choices. 

• Long-term care costs may require more deliberate planning. A greater share of daily assistance may have to come from paid caregivers, home health services, or residential care.
• Housing transitions may require advance coordination. The client or someone helping them may still need to research options, coordinate a move, oversee the sale of a home, or help manage the transition from independent living to assisted living or memory care.
• Medicaid planning may become an important part of the conversation. A client who may eventually rely on Medicaid to cover long-term care must deal with eligibility and asset-planning questions long before that potentiality becomes a reality.

Not having an adult child to help manage these client considerations does not mean that they cannot be handled effectively. But it does force advisors to consider situations where the default decision-makers may look different than they do in a nuclear family. 

Assembling a Care Team for a Client Without Children

A team of carefully chosen professionals, selected before a crisis occurs, can fill many of the support roles that adult children sometimes take on in other families. Key members of that team may include the following: 

• Geriatric care manager. This professional can help coordinate medical appointments, in-home services, housing transitions, transportation, and communication among providers, giving the client a central point of contact for day-to-day care needs. 
• Elder law attorney. An attorney can help address incapacity planning, long-term care issues, Medicaid eligibility, and the legal documents needed to put the client’s wishes and decision-makers in place. 
• Professional fiduciary. This could be a trust company, bank, licensed fiduciary, attorney, or other qualified individual who can serve in roles that an adult child might otherwise take on, including trustee, agent, guardian, conservator, or personal representative.

A client may also need other professionals, such as a financial advisor, accountant, insurance agent, home care provider, social worker, trusted friend, or other family member to help meet their specific care needs. 

Early Legal Advice Can Prevent Last-Minute Emergency Planning

As a rule of thumb, planning should start early and be revisited often. No plan can cover every contingency, but generally, the earlier and more thorough the planning, the more options a client will have when a crisis hits.

Even without adult children to step in, a client still requires a legally authorized decision-maker to act on their behalf. Identifying this trusted individual and securing their legal authority are critical steps that must be formalized within the estate plan.

Engaging an estate planning attorney early in the process ensures that these crucial protections are in place. Delaying this step can allow an unexpected crisis to develop, creating significant risk for everyone involved.

If a foreseeable planning gap negatively impacts a client’s well-being, their professional advisors could experience a damaged client relationship along with potential questions concerning professional liability.

Having no children does not mean that the client should forgo planning. A crisis may be unavoidable, but a planning crisis does not have to be. To protect yourself and your clients, do not delay in bringing an attorney into the process.

1. AARP & Nat’l All. for Caregiving, Caregiving in the US 2025, AARP (July 24, 2025), https://www.aarp.org/pri/topics/ltss/family-caregiving/family-caregiving-in-us-2025. ↩︎
2. Id. ↩︎
3. Id. ↩︎
4. AARP & Nat’l All. for Caregiving, Family Caregivers of Adults Age 50-Plus: The Caregiving in the US 2025 Series, at 11 (2026), https://www.aarp.org/content/dam/aarp/ppi/topics/ltss/family-caregiving/family-caregivers-of-adults-age-50-plus-caregiving-in-us-2025-series.doi.10.26419-2fppi.00412.001.pdf. ↩︎
5. Family Caregivers: Our Heroes on the Frontlines of Long-Term Care, ASPE, https://aspe.hhs.gov/family-caregivers-our-heroes-frontlines-long-term-care (last visited Sept. 30, 2026). ↩︎

One thing that almost every client shares, regardless of whether they have children, is a desire to pass down a legacy. That legacy can be anything the client wants it to be. But when children are not a part of the mix, beneficiaries may be less evident, demanding a more in-depth conversation about what the client values, how they want to pass down their legacy, and who should inherit their assets. 

The Default “Estate” Problem in Estate Planning

Using the term estate, while legally accurate, can sometimes cause confusion because clients may assume that it implies a level of wealth they do not possess. 

Explaining that estate planning is not just for the wealthy can help straighten out such misperceptions, but it still does not solve the default “estate” problem in some advisor-client discussions—and certain estate plans themselves.

Beneficiary designations can sometimes be an afterthought for clients who do not have children. A retirement account, life insurance policy, or bank account may still list a former spouse, a former partner, or a relative chosen years ago. If no valid beneficiary is named, these assets may pass by default to the client’s estate. This subjects the assets to probate and, in the absence of a valid will, to state intestacy laws.

This default outcome can be particularly problematic in cases where the legal heirs do not reflect, or perhaps do not even support, the client’s chosen relationships.

Fortunately, this is a relatively easy issue for an advisor to flag. A routine beneficiary review can reveal stale designations, missing information, or defaults that fail to reflect the client’s current wishes. This creates a natural opening to discuss whom or what the client actually wants to benefit.

How Childless Goals Can Differ—and Why That Reshapes the Planning Conversation

When a client has children, providing for their care and support typically takes center stage in planning discussions. In some ways, this simplifies the advisor’s role, as the client’s primary priorities and most cherished values are already clear.

Conversely, an estate plan for a client without children is often less concentrated on immediate family and instead more varied and highly intentional. These plans frequently include extended family members, such as nieces and nephews, as well as nonrelatives like close friends and mentors. Additionally, philanthropic goals often play a larger role, with charities and nonprofit organizations making up a significant portion of the beneficiary mix. These factors can open the door to the following planning strategies that may not play as large a role when children are the clear beneficiaries: 

• Leaving assets directly to a favorite charity
• Supporting a cause through a donor-advised fund
• Using qualified charitable distributions from a retirement account during life as part of their giving strategy
• Providing for important people (or a beloved pet) in their life
• Creating a legacy around an institution, community, or cause that has personal meaning to them

These legacy choices can alter the planning conversation in fundamental ways and open the door to deeper conversations—and a deeper client-advisor relationship. And the better we get to know a client, the more we can personalize our offerings to them and build trust. Advisors, then, should flag the planning gaps that can arise when children are absent as a valuable opportunity to foster those conversations. 

From Lending an Ear to Lending a Hand: Attorney-Advisor Teamwork

Advisors can sometimes learn more simply by listening to a client who may view an advisor’s office as a safe space where they can discuss their preferences and plans with a professional who has their best interests in mind. 

At some point, though, it is time to move from conversation to action. And some actions, including updating documents and drafting trusts, require that an attorney enter the chat. 

Because clients without children may be operating from a more diverse, open-ended planning playbook, it might take multiple meetings to reach that stage. But once reached, we can help nurture their ideas and bring the plan to life. 

Estate planning is critical for clients with minor children, but it is equally important that individuals without children have an up-to-date plan.  

With more adults deciding not to have children, this growing group presents an opportunity for advisors to expand the estate planning conversation to those outside the traditional childrearing cohort. 

There are plenty of reasons to plan that extend beyond providing for children. Although an estate plan for clients without children may look different than one that is structured for minor children, it remains equally essential. In fact, planning can frequently take on added importance for those without children, whether by choice or circumstance.

Planning for the Future Without Children

Opting not to have children is more than a passing trend. Increasingly, it is part of the norm. 

• According to Pew Research Center, the share of US adults under age 50 who do not have children and say that they are unlikely to ever have them rose from 37 percent in 2018 to 47 percent in 2023.¹
• Among those younger adults, 57 percent said that a major reason was simply that they do not want children.²

Additional data points in the same direction. A study using two decades of federal survey data found that the share of nonparents ages 15 to 44 classified as child-free (meaning that they did not have children and did not want them) more than doubled between 2002 and 2022.³

Not everyone without children has willingly made that choice. Some have delayed parenthood, while others face infertility, relationship questions, or a life that unfolded differently than expected. Taken together, however, the trends point to a sizable group of Americans whose financial and estate planning goals may not fit the more traditional family model.

Child-Free Can Lead to Assumptions

It used to be assumed that children would take care of their aging parents. And while adult child caregivers still provide a large share of that care,⁴ professional caregivers have stepped in to share some of the burden, particularly for older adults with diseases like Alzheimer’s and dementia.⁵

But what about care needs that arise well before the later stages of life? There may be no plan or documents in place for a client who is relatively young and healthy. They may assume that someone will be able to step in if needed but have never confirmed that this is indeed the case. 

To test this theory, advisors can introduce some gentle prompts during their next meeting with clients who do not have children: 

• If something happened tomorrow, who is legally authorized to act on your behalf in healthcare and financial matters? 
• Is that person aware that you would like them to act for you?
• Would they know where to find the documents and information they need? 
• Who is the backup if they are unable or unwilling to serve? 
• Have these choices been revisited recently?

Assumptions in any estate plan can lead to delays, mishaps, and fewer options down the road. But for clients without children, they can result in an even greater need to identify trusted decision-makers long before they are ever needed. 

Advisors should also not assume that clients without children will remain that way. It is best to have a transparent conversation with clients and ask whether they plan to expand their family. If they are unsure, you should let them know that they should reach out to you in the event that they intend to grow their family to ensure that their plan properly addresses any changes.

Why Child-Free Does Not Mean Worry-Free for Advisors

Appeals to the well-being of a client’s child can be a strong selling point for financial advisors and estate planners. When a client does not have children, concerns do not disappear entirely. In fact, more of the planning burden falls squarely on the client and, in some cases, on the advisor if there is no plan to deal with the following types of issues: 

• Frozen or inaccessible accounts. A client who becomes incapacitated without a named agent through a power of attorney may lack a reliable decision-maker to manage their health and financial matters. 
• Court involvement. The absence of a valid agent may force family members or others to seek a court-appointed guardian or conservator before these matters can move forward.
• Delayed transactions. Transfers, distributions, bill payments, or other time-sensitive decisions can stall while authority is established. 
• Missed deadlines or obligations. Taxes, insurance premiums, required payments, or other financial responsibilities may go unattended if no one is legally empowered to act. 

In such cases, family members, friends, or other would-be helpers and decision-makers may expect the advisor to act, even when the advisor cannot legally take instructions from them or act unilaterally. There may also be cases in which the advisor has been named to a fiduciary role because no suitable alternative exists, creating a potential conflict of interest. 

How and When to Involve an Estate Planning Attorney

By now, it should be clear that not having children is not a reason to move forward without an advisor. If anything, clients without children represent a distinct advisory subset with needs that deserve focused attention. 

Of course, every client is different, and advisors should approach each one individually—recognizing when it is time to bring in an estate planning attorney.  Below are a few common scenarios in which that handoff makes sense: 

• No power of attorney or other incapacity documents. A client who has not identified who would be legally authorized to act should address this gap now, before a crisis arises.
• The named decision-maker is no longer a good fit. Relationships change, people move, health declines, and someone who made sense years ago may no longer be the right choice.
• There is no suitable backup. Clients without children may have a smaller pool of suitable candidates, giving added importance to identifying alternates.
• The client wants to change or update existing documents. While discussing these needs is a valuable first step, once the conversation moves from spotting a potential issue to actually creating or revising a document, it is best to bring in legal counsel.

The absence of children in a client’s life may be a highly personal decision or a matter of circumstance. Regardless of the reason, serving these individuals allows advisors to highlight less traditional estate planning considerations, provided that they understand how to identify these specific needs and guide the conversation appropriately.

1. Rachel Minkin, Juliana Menasce Horowitz & Carolina Aragão, The Experiences of U.S. Adults Who Don’t Have Children, Pew Rsch. Ctr. (July 25, 2024), https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2024/07/25/the-experiences-of-u-s-adults-who-dont-have-children. ↩︎
2. Id. ↩︎
3. Stephanie Weaver, More Americans Are Choosing to Live a Childfree Life, Study Finds, Live Now Fox (May 21, 2025), https://www.livenowfox.com/news/more-americans-choosing-live-childfree-life-study. ↩︎
4. AARP & Nat’l All. for Caregiving, Caregiving in the US 2025, AARP (July 24, 2025), https://www.aarp.org/pri/topics/ltss/family-caregiving/caregiving-in-the-us-2025. ↩︎
5. Family Member Availability Predicts Likelihood of Unpaid Care for People Living with Dementia, NIH Nat’l Inst. on Aging (Nov. 16, 2021), https://www.nia.nih.gov/news/family-member-availability-predicts-likelihood-unpaid-care-people-living-dementia. ↩︎

The decision to place a parent in a nursing home or assisted living facility is rarely simple. It can feel even more fraught in hindsight when something goes wrong.

Careful research and frequent check-ins can help a client keep their loved one safe and secure in their new residence, as can preparing for a disaster that could trigger rapid, high-stakes legal and financial decisions while they are already stressed and distracted by the emergency itself.

A disaster plan may begin at home, but it should also account for parents and other family members who live elsewhere and may depend on the client more than ever during an emergency.

Eaton Fire Shows the Reality of Senior-Care Evacuations

When the Eaton Fire ripped through Altadena and Pasadena, California, in January 2025, approximately 850 patients and residents were evacuated from nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and group homes across the Los Angeles area.¹

The evacuation of The Terraces at Park Marino, an assisted living and memory-care facility in Pasadena that was later destroyed, showed how quickly a facility’s emergency plan can come under pressure. 

As the power failed and smoke filled the building, staff moved residents downstairs and out into the street. First responders directed them to a nearby parking lot, which became a temporary staging area while they waited for buses and ambulances to transport them to safer locations. 

The scramble also exposed how easily vulnerable residents can be lost in the shuffle. State investigators later cited the facility after finding that at least one wheelchair user had been left in her third-floor room after staff had reported that the building was clear.² A concerned family member alerted authorities, prompting firefighters to return and rescue her.

For the adult children of displaced residents, learning that a parent survived the emergency may be only the beginning. They may also need to know where the parent was taken, who can approve care or a transfer, whether long-term care insurance will cover temporary placement, and how immediate costs will be paid.

Such questions can arise while clients are still trying to locate and communicate with a disaster-displaced parent. The Eaton Fire is a stark reminder that families need their own strategy for a parent’s evacuation and continued care rather than simply trusting that the facility has a plan. 

Know the Facility’s Emergency Plan

Flagging disparities between emergency plans on paper and execution on the ground is the first step in preparing for a vulnerable relative’s evacuation.

Federal emergency-preparedness rules require Medicare- and Medicaid-participating senior care facilities to plan for issues such as evacuation, sheltering in place, resident tracking, communication, and continuity of care.³

However, clients should not assume that the existence of a written plan guarantees a smooth response. A regional disaster can strain transportation, communications, staffing, and receiving facilities beyond their breaking points. 

Advisors can encourage clients to learn more about a facility’s actual plan by asking the following questions:

• Under what circumstances would the facility shelter in place instead of evacuating?
• Where will evacuated residents be taken?
• Does the facility have primary and backup relocation sites?
• How will residents be transported and tracked?
• How will families receive updates if power or cellphone service is disrupted?

The facility’s plan can then be folded into the family’s evacuation plan so that vulnerable loved ones are not overlooked in the chaos. 

Confirm Authority and Financial Readiness

A parent’s evacuation can force decision-making that includes far more than the facility’s immediate response.

• Confirm that powers of attorney are current and accessible. The client should know where the parent’s healthcare and financial powers of attorney are stored, when they become effective, and whether the facility has usable copies.
• Review the scope of authority. An estate planning attorney can confirm whether the documents authorize the decisions that a displacement may require, including arranging care, approving a transfer, accessing funds, or entering into a new facility agreement.
• Review long-term care insurance. Clients should understand how a parent’s policy addresses temporary relocation, facility closures, alternate care settings, waiting periods, and reimbursement requirements. 
• Ask about Medicaid and facility-specific rules. Bed-hold and temporary-absence policies can vary by state and facility. Clients should understand how an evacuation or a transfer could affect the parent’s placement and benefits before making independent arrangements.
• Maintain accessible liquidity. Temporary placement, transportation, medical supplies, or private-pay care may require payment before insurance or other benefits respond.

Identifying authority gaps and financial pressure points before bills come due can help families respond in a more organized and informed way.

How Advisors Can Help Before and After an Evacuation

Preparedness conversations can provide greater stability to a client’s plan before a disaster, while coordinated advisor action can help with recovery afterward. 

What to Talk About Before an Evacuation

• Assemble other essential records. Ensure that the parent’s insurance information, identification records, medication list, and other critical documents are current, accessible, and available to whoever may need them.
• Build an emergency contact list together. Include direct contact information for the facility director, long-term care ombudsman, long-term care insurer, attorney, accountant, and other helpful resources.
• Request the facility’s emergency plan now. Encourage clients to obtain a copy before a crisis and to identify the facility’s evacuation procedures, relocation sites, transportation arrangements, and family notification process.

Supporting the Client’s Recovery Postevacuation 

• Document out-of-pocket costs immediately. Have clients preserve receipts and records for transportation, temporary care, medical supplies, lodging, and other emergency expenses.
• Review the client’s financial plan. Determine whether the event affects cash flow, emergency reserves, retirement goals, or the client’s ability to contribute to the parent’s care.
• Coordinate with the client’s attorney and accountant. Legal authority, Medicaid, taxes, insurance reimbursement, document updates, and other issues may require input from the appropriate professionals.

Years to Prepare, Minutes to Respond

Advisors routinely prepare clients for “slow-moving disasters” such as inadequate retirement savings or insurance gaps. Preparing them for an earthquake, a fire, or other rapid-onset disaster requires a different approach but is no less important to their long-term outlook. 

Although predicting a disaster may be impossible, we can ensure that our clients are prepared by addressing predictable challenges, limiting avoidable damage, and putting a plan—and a team—in place before an emergency happens. 

If you have questions about prepping clients for a disaster, we are here to help get you to higher legal ground. 

1. Allen G. Breed & Heather Hollingsworth, ‘Nobody’s dying’: A look inside how a senior home evacuated before burning down in LA wildfire, AP (Jan. 14, 2025), https://apnews.com/article/california-wildfires-escape-evacuate-senior-citizens-7068811f9be7a03c4932817320d97b73. ↩︎
2. Grace Toohey, Residents were left behind at senior facilities as Eaton fire raged. State finds serious lapses, L.A. Times (Nov. 12, 2025), https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-11-12/senior-homes-failed-eaton-fire-evacuation-state-finds. ↩︎
3. Emergency Preparedness Rule, CMS (June 29, 2026), https://www.cms.gov/medicare/health-safety-standards/quality-safety-oversight-emergency-preparedness/emergency-preparedness-rule. ↩︎

Clients rarely think of document access as a vulnerability. The plan is in place, the paperwork is signed, and the folder or binder containing that paperwork is somewhere at home. But a disaster does not wait for someone to remember where “somewhere” is. When a client is displaced, incapacitated, or unreachable, a plan that cannot be located or acted on by the right people is not really a plan at all. 

Safeguarding critical documents is a key part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA’s) disaster-preparedness guidance. Advisors should emphasize it, since they may be among the first people a client or the client’s family calls after a disaster to begin putting the pieces back together. 

Asking a few basic questions now can help stress-test a plan before an emergency exposes its gaps. For example: Who has the authority to act on an account if the client is incapacitated? Where are the documents establishing that authority? Can the right people quickly access them in an emergency? 

Addressing such questions with clients ahead of time can keep a simple oversight from becoming a major blind spot during an emergency when it may be impossible to revisit a plan until the dust settles.

Document Checklist

Important documents can feel abstract when no one needs to use them immediately. A birth certificate, an insurance policy, a power of attorney, or an account record may sit untouched for years, much as the risk of a wildfire, hurricane, or other emergency can feel remote until the client experiences one firsthand.

Suddenly, the stakes are real, a plan is put to the test, and documents that once seemed precautionary may become essential. 

To prepare for that possibility, advisors and clients should adopt a “not if, but when” mindset that lets them take back control, even in the uncertainty of a disaster, by understanding the risks, making a plan, and protecting critical records. 

Part of FEMA’s preparedness process involves safeguarding documents, information, and valuables, including the following:¹ 

• Documents that identify individuals and household members: birth and marriage certificates, adoption records, and child custody papers
• Financial and legal records: housing and vehicle documents, financial account information, insurance policies, and estate planning documents
• Medical information: health insurance records, medical powers of attorney, medication information, and physician contacts
• Household contacts: employers, schools, social service providers, and home repair services
• Valuables and personal items: priceless mementos, keepsakes, and other belongings that may be difficult or impossible to replace

It is not enough to simply know this information and these items. Clients should be able to access them at a moment’s notice, and they should be protected against the same conditions that could force an evacuation. 

FEMA recommends that key financial, legal, and contact information be

• stored as paper copies at home in a fireproof and waterproof box or safe, in a bank safe-deposit box, or with a trusted friend or relative and
• stored electronically in a password-protected format on a flash drive or external hard drive kept in a fireproof and waterproof container or through a secure cloud-based service.

An Advisor’s Pre- and Postdisaster Document To-Dos

Advisors are positioned to serve as disaster-preparedness intermediaries—and much more.

FEMA may set up shelters and recovery centers, but advisors can help put the pieces together—and back together—behind the scenes. Before and after a disaster, they can assist clients with organizing documents, connecting information, and addressing parts of a plan that are scattered, inaccessible, or no longer working together seamlessly.

Before a Disaster: Identify and Close Document Gaps

• Confirm that digital backups exist. Ensure that clients have digitized their files. Verify that critical documents have been scanned and stored through a secure, password-protected cloud service or other protected digital storage system.
• Establish plan access. Documents are of limited use during an emergency if they are locked away or nobody can find them. Confirm that fiduciaries, designated family members, and trusted contacts have instructions for accessing the client’s physical documents and digital copies.
• Verify physical storage recommendations. Ask whether the client’s original documents are protected in a fireproof and waterproof safe and if secondary copies are kept at a separate location.
• Review the document go-bag. A sudden evacuation can leave little time to search through files. Confirm that the client has a portable, protected set of essential records, including identification, Social Security cards, estate planning documents, insurance information, financial account details, and medication records.

After a Disaster: Recover and Reassess

• Prioritize replacement of damaged or missing documents. Encourage clients to begin with the records they are most likely to need right away, including identification, property records, insurance policies, and estate planning documents.
• Locate tax and financial records. Help clients determine where prior returns, account statements, property records, and cost-basis information are stored. Their accountant, attorney, financial institutions, or other professionals may also have copies.
• Conduct a postdisaster planning review. Treat the recovery period as a real-world plan assessment. For example, did the client’s experience expose gaps in the estate plan, insurance coverage, emergency liquidity, or broader financial plan?
• Reassess authority, access, and contact information. Consider the effectiveness of fiduciary appointments, account permissions, document access instructions, or emergency contacts based on who was available and able to act during the crisis, and make updates accordingly. 

Get Plans off the Shelf for On-the-Ground Deployment

Emergencies do not wait until clients are prepared. Many disasters follow predictable seasonal patterns, but there is no telling exactly when and where they may strike. 

Plans should account for a range of possibilities and be ready to deploy promptly. Gaps can cause delays that make a bad situation worse and turn temporary setbacks into prolonged crises. 

A plan’s effectiveness may be revealed only at the final hour, but preparing it for action now by asking questions, testing assumptions, and thinking through possible consequences is an advisor’s equivalent of conducting an emergency drill.

Such client conversations can prove both forward-looking and far-reaching when disaster strikes, setting your clients up to act faster and recover more effectively. 

1. Safeguard Critical Documents and Valuables, Ready (July 2018), https://www.ready.gov/sites/default/files/2020-03/fema_safeguard-critical-documents-and-valuables.pdf. ↩︎

National Preparedness Month is observed every September to encourage individuals, families, and communities to plan for disasters and emergencies.

Sponsored by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), this annual campaign emphasizes actionable steps such as understanding local risks, making a family emergency plan, building an emergency supply kit, and getting involved in community preparedness efforts.¹

Food, water, medicine, and a well-stocked go-bag can help clients remain safe in an emergency. But they may still be financially and legally unprepared if their important documents are inaccessible, their insurance coverage does not match the risks they face, or their estate plan is not disaster-ready.

According to national data from 2024,² weather and climate disasters have become more frequent, more severe, and more costly. Advisors should give emergency preparedness the same attention they give other events that could disrupt a client’s life and financial plan. A simple preparedness audit can reveal gaps before clients and their families are forced to address them under pressure.

Background on National Preparedness Month

While the word disaster may bring to mind hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, or wildfires, it can encompass a much wider range of events. 

Under the federal disaster-declaration system and FEMA’s emergency-preparedness guidance, disasters and emergencies may include earthquakes, severe winter storms, droughts, explosions, landslides, public health crises, terrorist attacks, cyberattacks, active shooter incidents, power outages, and other hazards affecting Americans’ homes, businesses, and communities.³ 

National Preparedness Month grew out of the heightened focus on emergency readiness following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. FEMA launched the annual campaign with partner organizations in 2004, and it has since expanded into a nationwide effort.

Five Predisaster Questions to Ask Clients

FEMA provides a checklist of four key actions that everyone should take to prepare for potential disasters and emergencies where they live.⁴ Advisors can build on that foundation with a five-question client audit conducted at an annual meeting or when a natural disaster comes up in the local news. FEMA’s location-based resources can also help advisors and clients identify disaster risks and preparedness information specific to their area.⁵

• Are your client’s important documents somewhere safe? Financial records, deeds, insurance policies, and legal documents should be protected from fire, water damage, theft, and other physical risks. Original paper copies may need to be stored in a fire-resistant, waterproof safe or at a secure location away from the client’s home, such as a bank safe deposit box, an attorney’s office, or the home of a trusted person in a different area. 
• Are your client’s estate planning documents up to date? Wills, trusts, powers of attorney, and healthcare directives should be current in case an emergency forces the plan into action. Outdated documents can create confusion or delay when someone needs to act during a disaster.
• Does someone else know where to find the client’s key documents? To be usable, estate and financial planning documents must be locatable. Clients should provide family members, fiduciaries, and trusted contacts with instructions on how to find and access documents where they are stored.
• Is your client’s insurance adequate for the risks they face? Clients should review whether their current coverage and policy limits are sufficient for the risks in their area, including current rebuilding costs and exclusions for hazards such as flooding or earthquakes.
• Have your clients explored policy riders that could further protect them? Endorsements or riders may help address gaps and other risks not fully covered by a standard policy, such as sewer or water backup, high-value personal property, business interruption, or work equipment.  

If not addressed beforehand, each of these items can compound an emergency and complicate a client’s response. Because disasters often strike suddenly and leave little time to act, the federal government and FEMA stress preparation. Advisors should encourage the same from clients.  

Connect Clients Before Disaster Hits

There is a saying, “Poor planning on your part does not necessitate an emergency on mine.” 

For advisors, however, that is not strictly true. 

When disaster strikes, an advisor may receive a panicked call from a client who needs to update a plan, locate an important document, or explore additional insurance options. While advisors do what they can to help in these situations, there may be only so much they can do in the middle of an emergency. They may also be dealing with its effects, especially if they work and live in the same area as their clients. 

The time to address disaster preparedness with clients is in the relative calm of your office before an emergency occurs, not amid the heightened pressure of an earthquake, storm, or fire evacuation.

While it can be easy for clients to assume that a serious disaster will not happen to them, the data suggests that it is increasingly a matter of when, not if.  

With incidents such as floods and wildfires on the rise, and one national survey estimating that more than 3 million US adults—about one in 70—were displaced from their homes by a natural disaster in the preceding year,⁶ that type of risk should not be dismissed out of hand. Doing so can be catastrophic in its own right.

Advisors should not simply catastrophize. They should give clients practical resources for preparation. That includes connecting them with estate planning attorneys and insurance specialists who can help ensure that their plans are ready when a disaster hits. 

1. National Preparedness Month 2026 Theme Announced, Ready (Aug. 18, 2026), https://www.ready.gov/september. ↩︎
2. Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters, Nat’l Ctrs. for Env’t Info. (Sept. 9, 2026), https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/billions. ↩︎
3. Disasters and Emergencies, Ready (July 21, 2026), https://www.ready.gov/be-informed. ↩︎
4. National Preparedness Month 2026 Theme Announced, Ready (Aug. 18, 2026),https://www.ready.gov/september. ↩︎
5. Search Your Location, FEMA (Dec. 20, 2023), https://www.fema.gov/locations. ↩︎
6. Andrew Rumbach & Sara McTarnaghan, More Than 3 Million Americans Were Displaced by a ‘Natural’ Disaster in the Past Year. How Can We Prepare for Our Climate Future?, Urban (Nov. 15, 2023), https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/more-3-million-americans-were-displaced-natural-disaster-past-year-how-can-we-prepare. ↩︎

A client departs New York for business on a morning flight and is in London by the evening of the same day. 

Midair, they receive a potential fraud alert from their bank. Once back on the ground, they biometrically unlock their banking app on a train ride to the hotel and chat with a customer service rep in the States in real time. Later that evening, they meet colleagues for dinner and tap their smartwatch to pay the bill. 

Back at the hotel, they try to access work documents on the cloud to prepare for the next day’s presentation, but something is wrong. 

Unbeknownst to them, the same new-location logins that triggered their bank’s fraud alert have also tripped their company’s security system, which flags sign-ins from unfamiliar countries or devices as potential threats and locks the account until identity is reverified.

They are locked out of their account. Everything they need is stored digitally. They do not have physical copies of a single document. If they cannot log in, the entire trip could be for nothing. 

Panic starts to set in. What now? 

While a digital lockout could derail a business trip, an estate planning emergency could have even greater consequences.

The Estate Planning Digital Paradox

An irony of modern estate planning is that the more secure we make our digital lives, the more vulnerable we are to a total planning lockdown when a crisis hits.

Security features such as biometrics, multifactor authentication (MFA), and encryption do their jobs perfectly: They keep bad actors out. But in a medical or travel emergency, these same defenses can completely lock out fiduciaries and family members. 

When a crisis strikes, legal authority alone is no longer enough. A power of attorney or trust agreement means nothing if the designated agent cannot bypass a text-message verification screen. A plan is not worth the paper it is written on if the right people cannot reach the right resources behind a digital lockscreen. 

Tracking the Digital Access Chain

A client may know every one of their passwords, make this information available to their decision-makers, and still face a digital lockout. The real risk often lies in the hidden links of the verification chain: 

• Single-device and identity dependence. Many accounts are strictly tied to a specific physical device, phone number, or biometric scan (e.g., Face ID). If that device is lost, damaged, or traveling with an incapacitated client, access stops instantly. Account recovery reliant on a single email address that is itself locked behind that unavailable device can trap the entire planning ecosystem in a loop.
• MFA lockout. Multifactor authentication adds valuable cybersecurity, but it creates a second locked door in a crisis. A successor trustee may hold the correct master password, but if their login attempt triggers a verification code sent via text to a smartphone that is locked away with the client’s belongings, out of battery, or simply out of signal range in a foreign country, the fiduciary is effectively locked out.
• Location-based restrictions. Financial fraud algorithms are designed to flag anomalous behavior. A login attempt from another country, an unfamiliar device, or an unexpected IP address can trigger automated fraud controls, demanding additional identity challenges or imposing a temporary account freeze.
• Institutional verification delays. Even when a decision-maker holds clear legal authority, the institution itself can become a barrier. Fiduciaries may face extensive delays while compliance departments require separate proof of identity, internal document reviews, or proprietary security questions before granting administrative access.

The key question is no longer “Who has authority?” but “What does that person need to locate, verify, unlock, or receive before that authority becomes usable?”

How Travel Can Test Financial and Estate Planning

Travel tests the operational mechanics of an estate plan like nothing else. What works from home may not work from somewhere else, so a plan should be stress-tested for accessibility—from both sides of the digital vault:

• The traveling client lockout. A client who normally logs in without issue from a familiar device and location may encounter added identity challenges, geographic fraud controls, or an automated freeze while traveling. A foreign IP address, disabled international service, or lost device can result in an account lockout that cuts off access to important financial information or emergency funds.
• The family or fiduciary lockout. If a travel emergency leaves the client incapacitated, family members or fiduciaries back home may have the legal authority to step in but encounter access issues. Automated fraud controls do not readily distinguish between an unauthorized user and a spouse, agent, or trustee responding to a crisis. The master password may be known, yet the required verification code gets sent to the client’s unreachable phone. Legal authority exists, but the institution continues treating the decision-maker like a stranger while it completes a review.

The accessibility stress test ultimately comes down to a pair of questions: 

• Could the client continue to locate, verify, unlock, and use what matters while away? 
• If the client could not act, could the right person at home do the same without relying on the client’s phone, email, device, or immediate cooperation?

Build an Access Plan, Not Just an Estate Plan

The solution to the digital paradox is not to weaken cybersecurity or spread passwords among family members. It is to build operational redundancy into a structured access system that identifies important accounts and documents, describes where they are stored, and explains how an authorized person can access them when needed. 

That system may include secure digital storage, backup authentication methods, recovery instructions, current account and professional contacts, and guidance about who should receive access—and when.

By moving the planning conversation beyond asset allocation to real-world access, advisors can give mobile clients protection that moves with them.

Clients can then hit the road knowing that, whatever happens, their plan will not become the estate planning equivalent of lost luggage.

Clients who travel internationally or own foreign assets may move fluidly among languages, cultures, and customs. However, they may not realize that their estate plan will not automatically follow them across foreign borders. 

Advisors and clients must be mindful of the limits of domestic planning and understand that plans written around US laws may not be recognized or function as intended in other countries. 

Advisors do not need to answer every legal issue that an international lifestyle can surface. Spotting exposures early, flagging potential risks, and bringing in professionals qualified to address them may be enough to keep an expected border crossing from becoming an unexpected legal barrier. 

Mapping the International Footprint

In the age of globalism, where people, goods, and ideas flow between countries, physical borders are not as distinct as they once were. Yet the invisible lines that legally separate nations represent different sets of rules that may not be compatible. 

A client does not need to consider themselves to be a global citizen to have an international footprint and cross-border exposure. 

These vulnerabilities may remain concealed behind what, on the surface, appears to be a completely domestic-looking book of business. Advisors can begin mapping a client’s international connections by watching for these common profiles:

• Foreign property owners. Clients who own a vacation condo, family villa, or inherited land abroad may discover that foreign real estate is governed by local laws and transfer procedures that do not neatly align with a US revocable trust or broader estate plan.
• Dual citizens or residents. Clients holding two passports or claiming legal residency in another country may actively utilize these benefits for global mobility without realizing that those benefits may expose them to conflicting legal jurisdictions and estate rules.
• Offshore account holders. Clients with bank accounts, investment portfolios, or business interests physically located outside US borders may find that these holdings trigger a distinct set of compliance obligations and transfer restrictions.
• “Slow-motion” expats. Clients who do not consider themselves expats but spend significant—and often loosely structured—parts of the year traveling internationally, such as retired snowbirds or digital nomads, may accidentally trip foreign tax or legal residency thresholds simply by remaining in another country a few days or weeks too long.

Any of these foreign connections introduces another legal or administrative layer into the planning equation. The earlier a client’s international footprint is identified, the more time the advisory team has to determine where domestic planning stops—and where additional global guidance must begin.

When Domestic Planning Stops at the Border

Clients may assume that a will, trust, power of attorney, or healthcare directive that works at home will work the same way wherever they travel or own assets. But that thinking can leave them exposed. 

A document that is valid at home may be difficult to use or completely unusable abroad. It could be rejected by a foreign institution, treated differently under local law, or require lengthy legal procedures to be recognized.

Domestic planning limitations can be seen in the following common assumptions that clash with international reality:

• “My power of attorney is universally recognized.” A foreign bank, property registry, or local institution may refuse or delay acceptance of a US power of attorney. Recognizing an agent’s authority abroad may require formal translation, local notarization, or additional locally compliant documentation.
• “My US will controls all my property.” Real estate abroad may be subject to local succession and transfer rules that countermand the instructions in a US will. Some countries also have forced-heirship laws that reserve a portion of an estate for certain heirs and may limit how freely the property can pass.
• “My revocable trust avoids probate everywhere.” The concept of a trust is totally foreign to many civil law nations, and its legal treatment can differ significantly across jurisdictions. Foreign tax and legal authorities may characterize the trust’s income or beneficiaries differently—or decline to honor its intended tax, succession, or probate-avoidance effects. 
• “My healthcare directive will speak for me.” A hospital abroad may not immediately recognize a US healthcare proxy, particularly if it is untranslated, unfamiliar, or inconsistent with local medical consent rules.
• “My beneficiary designation settles the matter.” Foreign retirement accounts, insurance policies, or investment products may follow localized transfer rules. A designation based on US assumptions may not produce the expected result.
• “My chosen fiduciary can step in.” A US-based executor or trustee trying to manage a foreign asset from afar may face institutional resistance, local residency rules, and logistical logjams.

These examples are by no means exhaustive and are not meant to suggest that every domestic document becomes useless once it crosses an international border. 

The point is that validity, recognition, and usability can all create different risks and exposures. And even a plan that technically holds up under disparate legal standards can become harder, slower, and more expensive to administer. 

Connecting Flights, Connecting Dots, and Connecting Professionals

A US passport provides access to much of the globe and the support of an extensive diplomatic network. 

US embassies and consulates can assist Americans overseas with many emergencies and practical problems. But they cannot provide legal representation or resolve cross-border planning issues such as document incompatibility and conflicts between local and US law. 

Being a US citizen and holding a US passport is not a golden ticket to a frictionless overseas experience. Local laws still apply and need to be part of travel plans—as well as financial and estate plans.

Clients may cross borders easily; their plans may not. The advisors who connect these international dots will not just retain cross-border clients—they will become indispensable to them.

Travel takes us out of our comfort zone, exposes us to new stimuli, and can rekindle a sense of awe as we leave the familiar behind and embrace the unknown. 

It also challenges us to think and act differently. 

But by stripping away our daily routines, travel can expose gaps in how prepared a person is to handle financial or personal emergencies far from home.

When a client shares their upcoming travel plans, our initial reaction may be to simply wish them well. However, advisors can play a more active role by helping clients prepare for unanticipated issues that may arise on the road.

Before they pack a bag, we can lead clients through a list of travel what-ifs and help them stress-test their preparedness for the off-script adventures—and misadventures—they could encounter. 

An Advisor’s Pretravel Checklist (and Stress Test) for Clients

Whether it is for business or pleasure, travel often inspires a sense of what may go right—not wrong.

Clients may be prepared for the ordinary inconveniences of travel, such as a missed flight or a lost bag, but not a serious injury, financial scam, or emergency that leaves them unable to respond. 

For clients who travel frequently or for extended periods, the following scenarios can reveal how prepared they—and the people expected to act for them—really are.

The Client Cannot Be Reached 

A client may be traveling in a different time zone, vacationing in an area with spotty cellular coverage, or purposefully unplugging from digital distractions. But market movements, suspicious account activity, or sudden business deadlines do not take a vacation, even when a client does. Financial and estate plans that depend on instant communication become more vulnerable the moment they leave local cell service. 

• Stress test: How quickly can you reach your client in a pinch? Do they have a fallback communication method while traveling? If a red flag pops up on an account, is there an authorized secondary contact you can alert, or does the matter sit in limbo until they find Wi-Fi?

The Client Cannot Act 

Being difficult to reach is a logistical problem. Being unable to act because of an illness, injury, detention, or another emergency far from home can become a much larger crisis. When a client is sidelined, their plan may not hold up unless it can be deployed in real time—wherever they are—by somebody authorized to act for them. 

• Stress test: If someone had to step in for the client tomorrow, how quickly could they establish their authority with financial institutions, healthcare providers, and other interested parties? Are the client’s financial and healthcare powers of attorney current and accessible, or are they stored somewhere nobody can reach? Could travel across state or national borders complicate the use or recognition of those documents? 

The Decision-Maker Is Unprepared 

Clients may have estate planning documents that name trusted individuals yet fail to fully brief those decision-makers on their roles or travel plans. A sibling, adult child, or trusted friend may be legally designated as a decision-maker, for example, but have little idea what is expected of them when they are called upon during a crisis. 

• Stress test: Do the client’s decision-makers know they have been named, and are they still willing and able to serve? Do they understand the general scope of their responsibilities? Do they know where important information is located and which advisors, attorneys, or institutions they should contact first? Has the client alerted their decision-makers about an upcoming trip?

The trick with these conversations is not to catastrophize a client’s travel plans or come across as needlessly alarmist. At the same time, advisors can help clients understand what could go wrong so their plans can absorb some turbulence and remain aloft. 

How to Prepare a Client to Hit the Road

TSA PreCheck is a screening process that lets travelers move through airport security faster and more easily. 

Now that your advisory version of PreCheck has been completed, your clients are ready to move around the world. With the right preparation, their plans will be ready to move too.

To clear the runway for your clients, focus on these practical pretravel steps: 

• Centralize information. Decision-makers who are stuck hunting for paperwork or guessing passwords in a travel emergency experience the planning equivalent of severe midair turbulence: It can throw the entire journey off course. Encourage clients to keep updated powers of attorney, healthcare directives, account contacts, and other important information in a secure, accessible, central location. Consider storing one copy digitally and another physically at an advisor’s office.
• Leverage timely check-ins. An annual review may not correspond with a client’s travel schedule or busy travel seasons. Use summer vacations, winter migrations, and major international trips as natural outreach opportunities. A quick check-in a few weeks before departure can make the review feel like a routine part of trip preparation, alongside immunizations, passports, visas, and other documentation. 
• Coordinate the next steps. Letting clients know you can help could mean checking a custodian’s requirements for an existing power of attorney, confirming trusted contact information, or suggesting a call with named fiduciaries and, if added guidance is needed, an estate planning attorney. 

Part of the joy of travel is encountering the unexpected. But when the surprise is unwelcome, the trip of a lifetime can stress a client’s planning past its breaking point.

We cannot stop a trip from going awry, but we can help clients plan for what can go wrong. 

Good news in the form of a sudden windfall can force a family into a new financial position that materially alters their legacy and estate plan. 

While newly acquired wealth may seem purely positive, it can attract the attention of the Internal Revenue Service and prompt an evaluation of which extended family members or charities should receive a share of what may now be a much larger estate.

A windfall requires thoughtful planning, especially when it arrives quickly and unexpectedly. 

Immediate Steps: Tax and Liability Mitigation

Clients receiving sudden wealth could be at risk of making a series of high-stakes missteps. Advisors can help their clients maintain stability and avoid hasty financial decisions by implementing several initial planning protocols right away: 

• Tax liability review. A windfall often triggers a significant income tax event in the current year. For clients with philanthropic goals, front-loading a donor-advised fund (DAF) or establishing a charitable lead annuity trust (CLAT) can provide an immediate income tax deduction in the year the windfall is received. Both strategies also remove contributed assets—and their future appreciation—from the taxable estate, serving a dual purpose that extends well beyond the current tax year.
• Asset protection audit. Increased wealth also brings increased visibility. To reduce exposure, new assets should rarely be held in an individual’s name. Evaluate the use of specialized trusts or limited liability companies (LLCs) to protect against future lawsuits or creditors.
• Titling and marital property. If the wealth is derived from an inheritance or a premarital business sale, strict titling is required to preserve its status as separate property. Commingling these funds into joint accounts can subject them to division in a future marital dispute.
• Review beneficiary designations. Existing wills and trusts often contain formula-driven provisions that were calibrated to a prior level of wealth. A sudden increase can cause those provisions to distribute assets in ways the client never intended. Reviewing beneficiary designations helps ensure that new assets do not bypass trust protections or create unintended estate tax consequences. 

Next Steps: Transitioning from a Windfall to a Plan

Wealth that lasts is rarely accidental. A forward-looking estate plan turns a windfall into a lasting legacy rather than a missed opportunity. 

• Introduce advanced transfer strategies. When an estate approaches or exceeds federal or state exemption limits, freezing the value of the windfall becomes a priority. Strategies such as grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs) or CLATs allow clients to transfer future appreciation to heirs or charitable beneficiaries with reduced gift tax exposure. A structured annual gifting strategy can further reduce the taxable estate over time.
• Explore stewardship options. Turning a sudden wealth event into a lasting legacy entails a shift from accumulation to purpose. A DAF provides a tax-efficient vehicle for charitable goals and serves as a training ground for heirs to practice financial stewardship. On a more personal level, drafting a family mission statement creates a rulebook for how this new wealth should—and should not—be used by future generations.
• Reevaluate fiduciaries. A jump-up in wealth and financial complexity may make a client’s original choice of executor or trustee less suitable. The individual previously named may lack the technical expertise to manage a high-value, multigenerational plan. Now is the time to review current appointments and consider professional fiduciaries or corporate trustees who can execute the plan with the necessary precision and neutrality.

Fortifying Their Future

An unexpected event, good or bad, can cause a financial hit unless the right next steps are taken. The advisor plays an irreplaceable role during times of sudden change in their clients’ lives.

Advisors can provide not only a sanity check for clients going through a transitional period but also a planning check that keeps them grounded and their plan up to speed.