The Five Documents Every Adult Should Consider

A plan is not one big document. It is five small ones, each covering a gap the others cannot. (The complete set, at a glance.)

People often think estate planning means "writing a will" and stop there. A will is essential, but it covers only part of your estate and says nothing about what happens if you lose capacity while alive. Five documents together close the gaps.

A will directs the assets held in your sole name — savings, investments, sole-name property — and names an executor to carry out your wishes and a guardian for young children.

A CPF nomination directs your CPF savings, which a will cannot touch. It is free and routes the money straight to the people you choose.

Insurance nominations direct each life-policy payout to named beneficiaries, separately from the will and usually faster.

A Lasting Power of Attorney is the only document on this list that works while you are alive. It names someone to manage your money and welfare if you lose mental capacity, sparing your family a court application.

An Advance Medical Directive records, in advance, your wish not to receive extraordinary life-sustaining treatment if you are terminally ill and unconscious.

The five divide naturally: one for incapacity (the LPA), one for medical wishes (the AMD), and three for distribution (the will and the two kinds of nomination). A plan missing any one leaves a real gap — most commonly the LPA, which people skip because it deals with a future they would rather not picture.

Illustrative example: the five documents and what each covers

The grid sets out the five side by side — each document, the part of your life or estate it governs, and whether it works during life or after death. Read together, they show why no single document is "the plan": each does a job the others cannot.