New for 2026 · Chariton Media
The Dead Man’s Guide to Estate Planning
An Attorney’s Field Manual for Protecting Your Family
If you die tomorrow, the state already has a plan for your family. It’s probably not the one you want.
Most people don’t avoid estate planning because they don’t care. They avoid it because no one ever made it make sense. This book fixes that: 30 short chapters, plain English, no jargon, no judgment.
Not ready to buy? Read a free chapter first.
“You can leave a mess. Or you can leave a map.”From the back cover
What’s In It for You
The questions this book answers
Every chapter tackles a question families actually ask across kitchen tables and waiting rooms. Among them:
- What happens to your children if you die without a will
- How to protect your child’s inheritance from an ex‑spouse
- How Medicaid and nursing homes actually affect your assets
- What probate really looks like in practice, and how long it really takes
- When a trust makes sense, and when it doesn’t
- The legal documents every 18‑year‑old actually needs
One honest warning: this book will not teach you to do your own estate plan. It teaches you the questions to ask, so you walk into an attorney’s office as an informed consumer instead of a nervous one.
Who It’s For
Written for the people who keep putting it off
Parents with Minor Children
Guardianship decisions, inheritance protection, and what actually happens to your kids if you never make a plan.
Business Owners
Why a will alone isn’t enough, how trusts shield your company, and succession planning that works.
Families Facing Long‑Term Care
Medicaid planning, protecting the family home from a nursing‑home spend‑down, and what actually matters.
Parents of Young Adults
What changes the day your kid turns 18, and why a HIPAA authorization matters more than you think.
Anyone Avoiding “The Conversation”
If estate planning makes your eyes glaze over, this book was written for you. Plain English, start to finish.
Readers Outside Missouri
The examples use Missouri law; the principles cross state lines. Take the questions to your local attorney.
Inside the Book
30 chapters across 7 sections
- Why Estate Planning Matters · the myths that keep people unprepared
- Core Documents · wills, revocable and irrevocable trusts, special needs trusts
- Life Stages · new parents, 18‑year‑olds, entrepreneurs, business owners
- Guardianship for Minor Children · the legal gaps you’ll wish you’d closed
- Medicaid & Long‑Term Care · shielding your home from spend‑down
- Probate & Asset Transfer · what it costs, how long it takes, how to avoid it
- Special Topics · asset protection before trouble finds you, plus a full glossary
“Estate planning isn’t gallows thinking. It is an act of love.”Epigraph, The Dead Man’s Guide to Estate Planning
About the Author
Patrick Nolan
Patrick Nolan is a Missouri estate planning attorney and the founder of Nolan Law Firm in Kirksville. Before law, he spent four years in an M1A1 Abrams tank with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and fifteen years as an award‑winning investigative journalist. Both careers taught the same lesson: a good plan executed today beats a perfect plan that never happens.
He has helped hundreds of families avoid the legal battles that follow when planning is delayed; this book exists so yours can be one of them.
- Missouri estate planning attorney, admitted 2014
- Gulf War combat veteran, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment
- Super Lawyers Rising Star, 2019–2024
- Former investigative reporter: USA Today, St. Louis Post‑Dispatch
Free Chapter
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Available now on Amazon · 154 pages · Chariton Media