The poet and farmer Wendell Berry once wrote a set of instructions that have nothing to do with finance and everything to do with it:
"Ask the questions that have no answers. Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias. Say that your main crop is the forest that you did not plant, that you will not live to harvest."
I've been in this business long enough to know that most people hear "estate planning" and think of documents. A will. A trust. Powers of attorney. Necessary paperwork, drafted, signed, filed, forgotten.
The families I've worked with over the years taught me something different: the documents are how you plant. The legacy is the forest.
What estate planning actually is
It's the deliberate transfer of more than money. Done well, it moves assets, values, and clarity across generations. Done poorly — or not at all — it moves money into the hands of courts, tax collectors, and a family that's grieving and guessing.
The statistics on this are grim: a majority of American adults don't have an up-to-date will, and the numbers barely budge among people who've spent a lifetime accumulating wealth. The estate planning that would take weeks gets postponed for years, because it asks us to do the one thing we're all reluctant to do — sit with the fact that we won't be here.
Berry's line cuts through that avoidance. Plant sequoias. Sequoias live for centuries; no one who plants one will stand in its shade. Estate planning done right is exactly that kind of act — a decision made not for yourself, but for people you love, in years you may not see.
The practical version of planting sequoias
- Audit your beneficiary designations. Retirement accounts, life insurance, and annuities pass by form, not by will. An outdated form — an ex-spouse, a deceased parent, a name from a previous address — is the single most common estate mistake I see, and the easiest to fix while you're alive to fix it.
- Check how your assets are titled. Joint ownership, trusts, and individual accounts each transfer differently. Mistakes here can undo even a well-drafted will.
- Review your documents against your life as it is now. The will drafted when your children were minors may not fit the family you have today. Plans are flexible. Ignoring them is not.
- Have the conversations. The people who inherit your estate should not be learning its contents from a probate court. The greatest generational wealth I've seen families transfer wasn't in the accounts. It was in the clarity.
The forest you won't live to harvest
There's a temptation in wealth management to measure everything in quarters. I understand the instinct; I watch markets weekly too. But the families who build something that lasts are the ones who occasionally lift their eyes from the quarter to the century.
Estate planning is where that longer view stops being a metaphor and becomes a signature on a document. The sequoia you plant this year — an updated beneficiary form, a funded trust, a family conversation over a long dinner — will outlive every market cycle you and I will ever talk about.
Ask the questions that have no answers. Then put a few of them in writing.
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This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment, tax, legal, or insurance advice. Securities and advisory services offered through Cetera Advisors LLC, member FINRA/SIPC. Advisory services offered through Cetera Investment Advisers LLC. Please consult a qualified financial professional regarding your individual circumstances.