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The Investor's Guide to Estate Planning
Build Your Legacy
Concise Summary
Create a clear estate plan to direct your assets and help avoid estate transfer surprises.
Know what estate planning tools are available and when to consult a professional.
Learn ways to discuss inheritance with beneficiaries to set expectations and help reduce family stress.
Chapter 1
Planning for Your Estate: The Basics
Estate planning can be complex. A good plan should be tailored to your personal goals and wishes. In this guide, we introduce some basic concepts and highlight options to consider when planning your estate. However, please understand these options are not exhaustive, nor are they personalized to your situation. We recommend contacting an attorney or estate planner to establish your own plan.
As a Fisher Investments client, you would get a service team that can provide a range of materials to help you understand and select estate planning options. If you would like to make changes to your estate documents, we can connect you with a vetted attorney in your area.
37%
Only 37% of Americans age 55 or older have a will or living trust.*
*Caring.com, as of July 2025. https://www.caring.com/resources/wills-survey.
Creating Your Plan
Specifying what will happen to your estate after you pass away can help give your loved ones peace of mind when they need it most. If you pass away without a will, living trust or other estate-planning document, the court system may be responsible for dividing your estate and deciding who will receive those assets.
Dealing with poorly managed plans can be stressful for families. Though it may take some forethought and paperwork now, your beneficiaries may benefit if you have a clearly defined plan. This process can start as early as you like. There are many ways to implement your estate plan and the best way for you largely depends on your individual situation.
Explore Ways to Implement Your Plan
Wills
A will is a legal document that allows you to name someone—called an executor—to manage your estate after you pass. Your will can be as broad or detailed as you like, and you may be able to name specific inheritors of certain assets. These documents can be helpful for those with relatively straightforward estate plans, and they may be good starting points for others.
If you only have a will, your estate may still have to go through probate. Probate is a court-supervised process that oversees the transfer of assets when you die and protects the rights of your creditors and beneficiaries. Some people may plan for their estate to go through probate as it provides a standardized process and court supervision.
Living Trusts
Trusts can be expensive and complex, but at their most basic, they are legally binding, written agreements designating someone (maybe even yourself!) to be responsible for managing your financial assets and establishing beneficiaries of trust assets. Many people hire lawyers with detailed knowledge of state laws to draft their trust documents. Even if you have a will, a trust can be beneficial as it can help avoid the potentially expensive probate process. A living trust can act as a will substitute, although you may still need a "pour over" will—a document used to transfer assets into the trust upon your death.
To pass assets to your heirs via a living trust, you first transfer assets into a trust for your own benefit during your lifetime. You can select the trustees—individuals given power to act on property in the trust—and, if the trust is revocable, you can retain the right to revoke the trust and alter trustees as you see fit. Living trust assets aren't normally exposed to public record, which can make it more difficult for anyone to challenge the handling of your estate.
A living trust can also be valuable as a vehicle for managing your financial assets if you become unable to manage them yourself. As with other aspects of estate planning, it's best to begin while you're still healthy. You can choose a representative—such as a spouse, family member or attorney—to take over as trustee if you are unable to manage your financial affairs. The new trustee can then manage assets for your benefit.
Investment Accounts with Beneficiary Options
Some investment account types, like individual retirement accounts (IRAs), transfer on death (TOD) accounts or certain types of trusts, allow you to name beneficiaries. In these instances, you can often set up both primary and contingent beneficiaries. Primary beneficiaries are first in line to receive specified portions of an account's assets. Your contingent beneficiaries may receive portions of the account if any of your primary beneficiaries are unable to accept (or disclaim) their share. However, beneficiary settings can vary based on the financial institution and account type, so it may be best to confirm details with an estate-planning professional.
If you have a partner or someone close to you, you may choose to invest in a joint account together. Two common joint investment-account types to consider are joint tenants with rights of survivorship (JTWROS) and tenants in common (TIC) accounts. However, the features of these accounts differ regarding the death of an account holder, and it's important to understand the nuances. When an account holder of a JTWROS passes away, the surviving account holder takes full ownership of the assets in the account. In a TIC account, both you and the other account holder have a set percentage of ownership—decided by you—in the account. When one of you passes, the surviving account holder will retain only his or her share of the account, and the deceased's share of the account will pass to beneficiaries as outlined in the account, will or estate plan.
These account options are just a few potential options for your estate plan. If your current accounts do not have a readily available beneficiary option or if you have complex plans, you may benefit from creating a will or living trust.
Other Options
While wills, living trusts and investment accounts are common estate-planning tools, there are many other options available as well. Trusts, for example, can come in many different forms and have many different nuances. Another type of trust occasionally used for estate planning is a charitable remainder unitrust (CRUT). In a CRUT, you donate money into the trust, which can make scheduled payments to a beneficiary for a defined period of time. Once the payment period is up, the remaining trust assets transfer to a charity or multiple charities as outlined in the original trust document. This option is just one of many. To find the right option for your personal situation and estate-planning goals, you may benefit from consulting an attorney or estate-planning professional.
Chapter 2
Investing for Your Estate Plan
While crafting a personalized estate plan can help you pass money to your beneficiaries, it is similarly important to develop an investment plan to achieve the goals of your estate plan. Simply put, if you don't have a well-crafted investment plan, you may not be able to pass on as much money as you'd like.
Your Estate-Planning Goals
Estate-planning goals can vary, and the ultimate goal of your estate plan could have an impact on the investment strategy you use to pursue that goal. Some potential goals for your estate plan may be to pass on as much money as possible at your death, to pass on a specific dollar amount or to pass on whatever is left from your retirement portfolio.
Your estate-planning goal may influence your portfolio's investment time horizon and optimal asset allocation—important factors to consider when investing.
Investment Time Horizon
A crucial investing consideration is your investment time horizon—how long you need your assets to last. Since estate planning often entails passing assets on to someone or an organization that will likely outlive you, your beneficiaries’ time horizons could influence your overall investment strategy. However, if you depend on those assets for income and cash flow, your needs during your lifetime should be your primary consideration.
Tools like standard life-expectancy tables may not be reliable sources to estimate how long you will live. These estimates are averages, and if you’re healthy or have a family history of longevity, you could live far past these projections.
If you do not rely on the assets you plan to pass on, your investment strategy should focus on your beneficiaries’ investment time horizons. If you plan to leave money to organizations or younger individuals, their investment time horizons may extend well beyond your own. In these cases, your portfolio may benefit from assets with more short-term volatility and higher long-term expected returns.
A crucial investing consideration is your investment time horizon—how long you need your assets to last. Since estate planning often entails passing assets on to someone or an organization that will likely outlive you, your beneficiaries' time horizons could influence your overall investment strategy. However, if you depend on those assets for income and cash flow, your needs during your lifetime should be your primary consideration.
Tools like standard life-expectancy tables may not be reliable sources to estimate how long you will live. These estimates are averages, and if you're healthy or have a family history of longevity, you could live far past these projections.
If you do not rely on the assets you plan to pass on, your investment strategy should focus on your beneficiaries' investment time horizons. If you plan to leave money to organizations or younger individuals, their investment time horizons may extend well beyond your own. In these cases, your portfolio may benefit from assets with more short-term volatility and higher long-term expected returns.
Fisher Investments' Portfolio Management Services
Fisher Investments has helped thousands of investors progress toward their long-term investment goals—including many with estate plans.
If you choose to work with Fisher Investments, you will have a dedicated client service team who knows your financial situation and long-term financial goals. Your client service team will check in to make sure your goals haven't changed and answer any market-related questions you have
Asset Allocation
We believe asset allocation—your portfolio's mix of stocks, bonds, cash and other securities—is the single greatest determinant of portfolio returns over time. If your long-term goal is to leave as much money as possible to your heirs, you may benefit from holding stocks in that portfolio, as stocks have historically yielded higher long-term returns than bonds. While many misconstrue bonds as "safer" than stocks, the opposite may be true for longer investment time horizons.
We believe asset allocation—your portfolio's mix of stocks, bonds, cash and other securities—is the single greatest determinant of portfolio returns over time. If your long-term goal is to leave as much money as possible to your heirs, you may benefit from holding stocks in that portfolio, as stocks have historically yielded higher long-term returns than bonds. While many misconstrue bonds as "safer" than stocks, the opposite may be true for longer investment time horizons.
As shown in Exhibit 1, over 5-year rolling periods, portfolios with heavy stock allocations have higher growth potential but also higher return variability, as measured by standard deviation.* However, Exhibit 2 shows that over 30-year rolling periods, portfolios weighted toward stocks have tended to maintain higher-than-average returns with lower return variability.
Exhibit 1: 5-Year Rolling Periods
Exhibit 2: 30-Year Rolling Periods
Source: Finaeon, Inc., as of 2/12/2025. Average rate of return from 12/31/1925 through 12/31/2024. Equity return based on Finaeon, Inc.'s World Return Index, Fixed Interest return is based on Finaeon, Inc.'s Global USD Total Return Government Bond Index.
1Standard deviation is a measure of the dispersion of a set of data from its mean and is used as a measure of risk. The higher the variation in a product's returns, the greater its standard deviation. Therefore, lower standard deviation is generally preferable.
1Standard deviation is a measure of the dispersion of a set of data from its mean and is used as a measure of risk. The higher the variation in a product's returns, the greater its standard deviation. Therefore, lower standard deviation is generally preferable.
The bottom line? Your investment time horizon may be much longer than you realize. Holding too many bonds or low-returning securities too early could inhibit your ability to reach your long-term estate-planning goals.
While creating a plan and investing for your estate-planning goals are crucial steps, we've noticed investors are sometimes unsure how to speak with heirs about their estate plan. In the following section, we'll provide some suggestions that may help you address these conversations.
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