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The answer, perhaps surprisingly, is: as simple as possible.

Not because simplicity is a virtue in itself. But because complexity has a cost, and that cost is often paid by the people you are trying to leave money to.

Here is why that matters.

When someone dies, a probate solicitor is instructed to gather information about everything the deceased owned, every plan they had put in place, and everyone they had put it in place with.

The more complicated the picture, the longer that process takes.

And probate solicitors charge by the hour.

We once sat with a gentleman who arrived with a shoe box containing paperwork for 52 different accounts.

Savings accounts. Bank accounts. Investments held in different places, opened at different times, for different reasons. Fixed rate bonds. Bonus interest rates. Accounts that had simply accumulated over a lifetime.

None of it was wrong. But the cost of untangling it all after his death would have put a significant dent in the money intended for the next generation.

A well-structured estate, from a financial point of view, holds as few accounts as necessary while still maintaining the security and diversification that makes sense for that family’s situation.

From an estate planning point of view, what we are really hoping to see is something equally clear.

A properly drafted will.

The right trust frameworks in place.

And someone who has genuinely understood and recorded what your wishes are, so that your probate solicitor and your children have everything they need after you are gone.

The goal is not to have the most sophisticated plan.

It is to have a plan that is clear enough to be carried out correctly, by the right people, at what will inevitably be a difficult time.

That is what a well-structured estate looks like.