Bates Family

What to Include in Your Estate Documents

  1. Include the story of your faith journey, how you came to faith in Christ, in your planning documents. How you came to faith in Christ, your faith journey, is an important key to understanding your values. Include the story of your faith journey as a prominent element of your planning documents. Describe how you met the Savior, how you were discipled, and how that has informed your decisions since. Including that story is an important tradition that has been practiced throughout history.

  2. Sample Faith Journey Stories:

    1. Everything Belongs to My Father
    2. Accepting His Lordship
    3. A Living Legacy
    4. A Single Mother’s Legacy of Faith

  3. The Confidential Estate Inventory is designed to assist you in gathering the necessary and pertinent data on your estate. It is divided into four sections, known as the Four P’s of Estate Planning: People, Property, Plans and Planners.

  4. Each section which pertains to your personal situation should be completed as thoroughly as possible, using the guidelines provided. You can gather this in the privacy of your own home and may reduce the cost of professional counsel as you discuss implementation of your estate plan.

  5. A helpful guide and a form can be downloaded:

    1. Download a guide to planning your estate.
    2. Download a fillable form to document your estate.


How to communicate your values to your family