Emergency Estate Planning: What to Do When You Have 48 Hours

Most estate planning advice assumes you have time. Months to think. Weeks to compare attorneys. Days to draft, review, and refine.

Sometimes you don’t have that. A surgery date moved up. A diagnosis came back. A parent declined faster than anyone expected. A flight leaves Thursday.

This is a guide for those moments — what to do, in what order, when you have 48 hours.

First: take a breath

48 hours is enough. It’s not enough for a leisurely, comprehensive plan. But it’s plenty of time to put in place the documents that actually protect you and your family in the situations that matter most.

The goal in a 48-hour timeline isn’t the ideal estate plan. It’s the right plan for right now. We can always upgrade later.

What you actually need (in order of urgency)

Not every estate planning document is equally urgent in a crisis. Here’s the actual priority order:

1. Power of attorney for finances (most urgent)

If you become unable to manage your own financial affairs — even temporarily — nobody can legally pay your bills, access your accounts, or handle your obligations without this document. Not your spouse, not your adult children, nobody.

Without it, the family has to petition a court for guardianship of your estate. That takes weeks and costs thousands.

2. Healthcare power of attorney / medical decision-maker

If you can’t communicate your medical wishes, someone has to. This document names that person. In Kentucky, this is called a “healthcare surrogate.” In Indiana and Ohio, it’s typically called a healthcare power of attorney.

Without it, hospitals fall back on a statutory hierarchy (spouse, then adult children, then parents) — and disputes are common.

3. Living will / advance directive

This is the document that says what you want around end-of-life care — do you want resuscitation, life support, feeding tubes? It takes that decision off your family’s shoulders. Even a strong, healthy person should have one before any surgery.

4. HIPAA authorization

This lets your decision-makers actually get medical information about you. Without it, hospitals can’t legally share details — even with your spouse in some situations.

5. Last will and testament

If something happens, your will directs who receives your assets and, if you have minor children, who their guardian will be. In a true emergency, this matters less than the lifetime-protection documents above — but it should still be in place.

6. (If time allows) A revocable trust

The premium tier for a 48-hour plan. A trust avoids probate for assets that are properly transferred into it. We can’t typically fully fund a trust in 48 hours, but we can draft it and lay out the funding plan for after the immediate situation passes.

The 48-hour checklist

What to skip in a 48-hour plan

Some things just aren’t feasible on this timeline. That’s OK. Skip them now and revisit when the crisis has passed:

• Complex tax planning — if you have a taxable estate (over the federal exemption, currently around $13M per person), the elaborate tax planning takes longer than 48 hours. Cover the basics now; revisit the tax piece soon.
• Funding the trust — re-titling assets into a trust is a process. The trust document itself can be drafted in 48 hours, but the asset transfer happens over the weeks following.
• Detailed business succession plans — if you own a business, the high-level plan goes in now; the detailed succession documents come later.
• Charitable giving structures — charitable lead trusts, donor-advised funds, etc., require thought and shouldn’t be rushed.

What an emergency plan costs

At Cooper Law, emergency planning is priced as a flat fee and delivered in 48–72 hours. Two packages are available — a will-based emergency plan with all essential ancillary documents, and a trust-based emergency plan that adds a revocable trust and pour-over will. Payment plans are available on request, and the rush itself doesn’t change the price — you’re paying for the work, not the urgency.

Specific pricing for both packages is on the Estate Planning 911 page.

The most common regret I hear

People who go through an emergency estate planning situation almost always tell me afterwards: “I wish I’d done this when there wasn’t pressure.”

The plan we put together in 48–72 hours is a real plan. It works. But it’s done under stress, with limited time to think through the nuances. A plan built over a few weeks of normal life is almost always a better plan.

If you’re reading this and there’s no immediate emergency — just a vague feeling that you should probably get this done — please don’t wait. Doing it calmly is so much better than doing it under pressure.

And if there is an immediate emergency: it’s OK. There’s enough time. Let’s go.

Allison Cooper, JD, CPA, CFP®

Allison Cooper is the founder of Cooper Law, LLC, an estate planning firm based in Louisville, Kentucky. She holds a JD, CPA, and CFP® and is licensed to practice law in Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio.