Meet WillBuddy’s Free Texas Estate-Planning Tools

Estate planning often stalls because the first question feels too large: What am I supposed to do? A useful starting point is usually smaller. You might need to identify one missing decision, understand one legal branch, or prepare a better question for an attorney.

That is why we built the WillBuddy free tools library. Each tool focuses on a distinct planning problem, gives you a result before any signup prompt, and explains its limits. You can use one tool or work through all five.

1. Find your estate-planning readiness score

The estate-planning readiness quiz is the best general starting point. It asks about your household and priorities, then walks through the planning actions that apply to your situation.

Your result includes:

• a simple readiness percentage;
• the number of applicable actions already complete; and
• your next three planning actions in priority order.

The score is not a legal grade. It does not inspect a will, power of attorney, beneficiary designation, or other document. Its job is to turn a vague feeling of being “behind” into a manageable list.

2. Compare a will-centered plan with a living-trust conversation

The Texas will-versus-trust decision tool asks five questions about real estate, property outside Texas, family or distribution complexity, privacy priorities, and willingness to fund a trust.

It then suggests one of three planning directions:

• a will-centered plan may be the practical starting point;
• comparing both paths deserves more attention; or
• a living-trust conversation with an attorney deserves priority.

This tool deliberately avoids claiming that one structure is universally better. A trust must be created and funded correctly, and a will still plays an important role in many trust-centered plans. WillBuddy prepares will and incapacity-document drafts; it does not create trusts.

3. See who may inherit in Texas without a will

The Texas intestacy visualizer shows why “the spouse gets everything” is not a safe universal rule.

After a short family-tree interview, the result separates three categories that are easy to blur together:

• the deceased person’s community-property interest;
• separate personal property; and
• separate real property.

The visual map can show different shares or interests for a surviving spouse, descendants, parents, siblings, or other family branches. It is a simplified illustration of selected Texas Estates Code Chapter 201 rules—not a determination of heirship. Title, beneficiary designations, survivorship rights, debts, adoption, parentage, homestead protections, and other facts can change the analysis.

4. Compare when estate-planning costs may occur

The Texas estate-planning cost calculator does not promise a single “average cost” or guaranteed savings. Instead, it lets you edit the assumptions behind four ranges:

• will-plan preparation;
• living-trust preparation and funding work;
• a probate-path illustration; and
• will preparation plus the probate illustration.

The important distinction is timing. Some costs happen while creating a plan. Others may arise later during administration. Actual fees depend on ownership, complexity, procedure, conflict, professional services, and the scope of the work. The calculator keeps your amounts in the browser and records only that the tool was used.

5. Match incapacity needs to the right Texas documents

The Texas power-of-attorney and advance-directive navigator separates five jobs that are often treated as if they belong to one form:

• financial or property authority;
• healthcare decision-making;
• treatment wishes for certain conditions;
• access to protected health information; and
• preferences about a possible future guardian.

Your answers produce a document map that may include a statutory durable power of attorney, medical power of attorney, directive to physicians, HIPAA authorization, or declaration of guardian. The map explains the role of each document before offering any product continuation.

Start with the question you already have

You do not need to complete every tool in one sitting. Choose the question that is currently blocking you:

• “I do not know what is missing.” Start with the readiness quiz.
• “I am deciding between a will and a trust.” Use the will-versus-trust tool.
• “I want to understand what happens without a will.” Open the intestacy visualizer.
• “I am trying to understand cost categories.” Try the cost calculator.
• “I keep confusing powers of attorney and directives.” Build a document map.

The goal is not to make a legal decision from a quiz. It is to leave with a clearer picture, a smaller next step, and better questions for the people helping you plan.