<prompt> Human: Ive been thinking about this topic recently. I am recent college grad, coming up on my 25th birthday. Long story short, heres my personal balance sheet right now:- 4k emergency fund- 1k in checking for living expenses- car worth about 10K- cash value whole life policy with a surrender value of 5k and death benefit of 61k- 2k in my 401k - Savings bonds from when I was a kid immaterial valueLiabilities:33k in student loans 30k federal, 3k Perkins11.5k outstanding car loan balance 19.61month. My parents took this out on the early 90s and I just started paying the premiums. Im leaning heavily on cashing it out, replacing with term insurance, and investing the remainder. More on that if you are so inclined.So, it will be a few years before I can get those loans aggressively paid down to the point that Ill have a positive net worth, and thus and estate when I die. My immediate family are all on good terms with me and with each other, and can reasonably be expected to do so in the future.If I were to die tomorrow, most all of my assets with the exception of life insurance proceeds which dont have to go through probate, if I understand correctly? would be used to settle the debt. It is really necessary that I delineate who gets what in my will, since creditors will most likely supersede that anyway?  <response>: Former estate planning attorney here and, please dont take my input as legal advice, these are just my general thoughts. I think most people who are unmarried, wo kids and have low amounts of assets are fine without a will. Your state intestacy statutes in all likelihood will just direct whatever assets you have to your parents but you may want to check. If you have less than 50k in accounts, a lot of states allow for small claims affidavits for the beneficiaries to take the assets leftover free from probate. If parents are the only statutorily-afforded decisionmakers, a health care directive is also in the good-idea-but-not-mandatory category as long as everybody is getting along. Powers of attorney can be helpful if you travel a lot.To answer the life insurance piece: LI payouts are generally non-probate assets in that the payouts go to whomever youve listed on your beneficiary designation form without passing through probate.Hope this helps. 