Our founder, Maria, will tell you her dad had a will.
Signed, notarized, written with an attorney. When he passed away in January 2021, Maria and her brothers found it right away. They were grateful.
And then they spent the next year and a half trying to figure out the rest.
The accounts nobody knew existed. An IRS document buried at the bottom of a file drawer they almost missed entirely. A golf cart, a boat, a camper, each with its own title situation. A laptop they had to get into. Subscriptions that kept charging. The question they kept asking each other: do you think we've found everything?
They still don't know for certain.
August is National Make a Will Month, and it points at a real problem. If you don't have a will, this month is your nudge. If yours is outdated, it's your excuse to fix it.
But here's what that experience taught Maria and what she built the Nokbox to address: a will wasn't enough for her family. It probably won't be enough for yours either.
What a Will Is Actually For
A will is a legal document. Its job is to direct the distribution of your assets after you're gone: who gets what, who raises your children if they're still young, who serves as executor. That's meaningful and necessary.
What it doesn't do is tell anyone where anything is.
It doesn't list bank accounts. It doesn't give a family access to email or online accounts. It doesn't explain which bills are on autopay, what the storage unit combination is, or where the spare keys are kept.
The executor has legal authority to manage the estate. What families often lack is the practical information to actually use that authority. Those are two different things, and the gap between them is where estates become difficult.
The Numbers Behind the Problem
According to the 2026 Trust and Will Estate Planning Report, 56% of Americans have no estate planning documents at all. A separate Caring.com survey found that only 24% of Americans reported having a will in 2025.
Make a Will Month is pointing at a real gap. Most people haven't done the legal piece.
But even among those who have, most are only halfway there. The will exists. The practical roadmap doesn't.
What Families Actually Need
Think about what the first week looks like for a next of kin. They need to notify the bank. Find the life insurance policy, the carrier, the policy number, who to call. Figure out what's on autopay and what will lapse if no one acts. Find the car title. Locate the deed. Get into the email account.
None of that is in a will.
After going through it with her father, Maria came home to Colorado and realized that her own trust, the one she thought made her covered as a single mom, didn't give her kids a roadmap for any of this either. She started building what would become the Nokbox because she couldn't find anything that actually solved the problem.
The Nokbox Was Built for Everything After the Will
The Nokbox is a complete life organization system: 67 color-coded folders organized by category, with checksheets that walk you through exactly what information to gather in each area of your life.
Financial accounts. Insurance policies. Property and vehicles. Medical information. Passwords. Recurring bills. Important contacts. The small things... the neighbor with the spare key, the storage unit combination, the name of the handyman you trust.
You fill it once. You update it when things change. And when the time comes—a health emergency, an unexpected death, a spouse trying to manage finances during a difficult stretch—your family has something they can actually use.
Make a Will Month is the right prompt to handle the legal piece. The Nokbox is everything that comes after.
Start with a will. Finish with a Nokbox.
Shop The Nokbox Estate Planning Packages → thenokbox.com/collections/estate-planning-packages
A Few Questions We Hear Often
What is National Make a Will Month?
An awareness campaign observed each August by estate attorneys, financial planners, and consumer organizations to encourage Americans to create or update their wills. The goal is to close the significant gap between how many people have estate planning documents and how many should.
Is a will enough for estate planning?
It's a critical starting point, but not the whole picture. A will gives a family legal authority over assets. It doesn't give them the practical information they need to find those assets, manage a household, or handle the day-to-day logistics of settling an estate. That's what the Nokbox is designed to provide.
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