Ramit Sethi, New York Times best-selling author and host of Netflix’s How to Get Rich, built his reputation by teaching people to design a “rich life” around what they love. On estate planning, Sethi follows the same logic. The work isn’t done, he says, until the people you love know what to do with what you’ve built.
Sethi on Estate Planning: Start With a Living Trust
On estate planning, Sethi’s core recommendation is specific: start with a living trust. A trust, for him, is not an advanced tool for the wealthy but a foundation for everyone. It’s something every family with assets and people who depend on them should have in place. (Similar to Suze Orman and Robert Kiyosaki on trusts.)
His reason is practical: probate. Probate, if you don’t know, is the court process that governs assets passed through a will. It’s expensive and time-consuming. (Our probate calculator can show you the cost and delay your estate would face.) A revocable living trust sidesteps it entirely. Your assets transfer to your heirs privately, on your timeline, without a judge involved.
A trust also fits the financial philosophy Sethi has spent his career advocating. His book I Will Teach You to Be Rich introduced millions of readers to the idea of automating their finances—setting up systems that run without constant attention. A properly structured trust is exactly that: an automated system for distributing your wealth according to your wishes, without court delays or family conflict.
Update Your Trust Every Year
Building the trust is the first step. Updating it is the work most people skip.
Sethi’s standing recommendation is to review your estate plan annually, alongside your other financial accounts. Family circumstances change. Assets grow. Tax law shifts. A trust written when your children were young may no longer reflect your intentions by the time they’re adults. A beneficiary designation from a previous marriage may point to the wrong person entirely.
These gaps don’t fix themselves. They surface at the worst possible moment, when your family is already grieving and has no way to ask you what you meant. The review doesn’t have to be complicated. It’s a single question: does this still reflect my life, my family, and my wishes? If yes, move on. If not, update it.
Talk About Your Trust
On estate planning, Sethi says the most important thing has nothing to do with documents. It’s about communication.
He points to a troubling pattern: 90% of wealthy families lose their wealth by the third generation. The cause isn’t bad investments, it’s heirs who were never prepared to manage what they inherited.
Sethi’s prescription is regular family conversations on finances. These aren’t lectures, they’re open discussions about what you earn, how you spend, and how you structure your assets. The logic is simple: you can’t inherit a system you’ve never seen operate. If you want your heirs to steward a trust responsibly, they need to understand everything before the trust ever comes into play.
This is also why Sethi is skeptical of trusts loaded with conditions—restrictions tied to marriage, career choices, or life milestones. Rules designed to control heirs from beyond the grave often breed resentment and invite legal challenges. A simpler trust, paired with honest ongoing conversations, does more to protect both the assets and the family.
For Sethi, a living trust, reviewed annually and discussed openly with your family, is the complete picture. And you need both—the legal document and the conversation you have with family members before they need it.
