Skip the plan and three things happen, none of them good.
Your family goes to court. Everything you own gets sorted out in probate: public, and often close to a year. One person described a relative’s estate taking 22 months. Someone else, who’d set up a trust instead, said control passed to the right person almost instantly after a sudden death. Same event, completely different experience for the people left behind.
Your kids are in limbo. If something happens to you while your children are still young, a court decides who controls the money they inherit, unless you already said so. A trust (with a will naming guardians) lets you make that call yourself, in advance, and set the ages when they actually receive it.
No one can step in if you’re alive but can’t act. People plan for dying and forget the in-between: an accident, an illness, months where you can’t manage your own affairs. Without a plan, your family may need a court’s permission just to pay your bills. With one, someone you chose takes over the moment it’s needed.
A trust isn’t really about death. It’s about making sure that whatever happens, the people you love aren’t stuck.