By Kimberly Palmer, NerdWallet

The investing information provided on this page is for educational purposes only. NerdWallet, Inc. does not offer advisory or brokerage services, nor does it recommend or advise investors to buy or sell particular stocks, securities or other investments.

When certified financial planner (CFP) AJ Ayers helped clients with their basic estate planning documents, she noticed they often got stuck on one step: finalizing the paperwork.

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“They would create an online estate plan and then wouldn’t complete the step where you need a notary to watch you sign it with two witnesses,” she says.

To remove that hurdle, Ayers and her team at Brooklyn Fi — a financial planning firm in New York — threw a series of “martinis and mortality” parties. Clients could bring their prepared documents to notarize while socializing.

The series was such a hit that she’s already done four more. And she’s noticed more of her clients following through.

If you’re also struggling to complete your estate planning, here are some more ways to finally get it done.

Add the task to your calendar

You may not have a fun notary event to attend, but you can make a date with yourself to get it done. Translation: Pick a time and place and put it on your calendar. First, finish your paperwork. Then, find a notary at your local bank, credit union or even a UPS Store.

“It’s just an administrative hurdle for clients who lead busy lives,” Ayers says.

Just like visiting the dentist or arranging an annual check-up, you have to schedule it. You can even plan to reward yourself with your favorite beverage after you get home to make sure you keep the self-made appointment.

Take inventory

Estate planning can feel emotional and overwhelming. Saundra Whitaker-Bryant, an accredited financial counselor who holds a doctorate in business management, suggests starting by simply writing down your assets and what’s valuable to you.

“No matter what you have, it’s yours and it’s valuable,” she says. That may include a small bank account, a digital asset like a social media account or a piece of jewelry with sentimental value.

“People will come to me and say, ‘I don’t have anything,’” Maryland-based Whitaker-Bryant says. But when she presses them, she learns that they have a house, a bank account and other assets that they want to leave to their loved ones.

Writing down all of that information is an important step, and it’s easy. She says it often helps people overcome their hesitancy to even think about estate planning.

Seek the support you need

Estate planning needs vary greatly. Those with simple situations may be able to rely on online templates and services to draft their documents. Others may need to hire a lawyer to help them.

People who don’t have kids may need a professional fiduciary to make decisions if they are incapacitated, says Nashville-area based Jay Zigmont, CFP and founder of Childfree Trust.

“The whole estate system assumes you have a next of kin, and if you don’t, it breaks down,” he says. Childfree Trust offers a fiduciary to serve in that role if needed.

“We essentially become their next of kin,” Zigmont says. “It’s about who will make decisions for you when you’re alive.”

Websites like Trust & Will, LegalZoom and FreeWill offer other estate planning options.

Get motivation from your loved ones

Without an estate plan in place, family members are often left scrambling. Managing someone’s finances if they become incapacitated — or settling an estate if they die — is a complex process that can involve lawyers, courts and lots of paperwork.

Even as a financial expert, Beth Pinsker, a CFP in New York, found the task challenging when she had to suddenly take over her mom’s finances.

Her book, “My Mother’s Money: A Guide to Financial Caregiving” aims to help others through what she learned.

“It’s so much easier to do these things beforehand than to suffer the consequences of not doing them,” she says.

Your loved ones can more easily make medical and financial decisions for you, if needed, with the proper estate planning documents in place.

Given the so-called Great Wealth Transfer — which refers to assets being inherited by Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z — it’s more important than ever to get those tasks done.

“You need some kind of instruction document and legal authorization for somebody to be in charge after you die,” Pinsker says.

Once your documents are done and official, you and your loved ones can live with less worry.

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Kimberly Palmer writes for NerdWallet. Email: kpalmer@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @kimberlypalmer.

The article How to Face Down Estate Planning Paralysis originally appeared on NerdWallet.

By LORNE COOK, Associated Press

BRUSSELS (AP) — European allies at NATO on Thursday brushed aside concerns that the United States has stepped back from its leadership role of the world’s biggest security organization, leaving them and Canada to do the lion’s share of defending Europe.

A general view of the round table during a meeting of the North Atlantic Council in Defense Ministers Session at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth did not attend Thursday’s gathering of defense ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels. His no-show came after Secretary of State Marco Rubio skipped the last meeting of NATO foreign ministers in December.

It’s rare for members of a U.S. administration to miss a meeting of the organization’s top decision-making body, the North Atlantic Council, at the level of ministers, let alone two meetings in a row. Under Secretary of Defense Elbridge Colby was sent in Hegseth’s place.

“Sadly for him, he is missing a good party,” Icelandic Foreign Minister Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir told reporters. “Of course, it’s always better that the ministers attend here, but I would not describe it as a bad signal.”

“I’m not disappointed,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said. “Each of us has a full agenda. And one time the American defense minister is here, and one time not, so it’s his decision and his duties he has to fulfill.”

How times have changed

When asked what NATO’s purpose was in its infancy in 1949, NATO’s first secretary-general, the British general and diplomat Lord Hastings Ismay, was reputed to have replied: “To keep the Americans in, the Russians out and the Germans down.”

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Nowadays, Germany is stepping up. After Russia invaded Ukraine four years ago, it vowed to spend$118 billion to modernize its armed forces in coming years.

A big part of NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte’s job is to keep the Americans in.

“They have to take care of the whole world. This is the United States,” Rutte told reporters before chairing the meeting. “I totally accept it, agree with it.”

“They have always consistently pleaded for Europe doing more, Canada doing more, taking more care of the defense of NATO territory, of course in conjunction with the United States,” he said.

That means more European spending on conventional weapons and defense, while the U.S. guarantees NATO’s nuclear deterrent.

But doubts linger, and surprises from the Trump administration cannot be ruled out. Allies still wonder whether more U.S. troops will be withdrawn from Europe.

“What for me is the most important is the no-surprise policy that has been agreed between the NATO secretary-general and the U.S.,” Dutch Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans said.

Stepping back

Publicly at least, the Trump administration is doing much less at NATO. A year ago, Hegseth warned that America’s security priorities lie elsewhere and that Europe would have to look after itself, and Ukraine in its battle against Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Supplies of U.S. guns and money that were sent to Ukraine by the previous administration of President Joe Biden have dried up under Trump. European allies and Canada are obliged to buy weapons from the United States to donate now.

Western backers of Ukraine were also meeting at NATO on Thursday to drum up more military support. A scheme proudly championed by the Pentagon under Biden, the Ukraine Defense Contact Group is now chaired by the U.K. and Germany.

U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey announced that Britain would provide “an extra half a billion pounds ($682 million) in urgent air defense to Ukraine. This is Britain being a force for good in the world, building a new deal for European security within NATO.”

Sweden also intends to fund the purchase of more American weapons. The Netherlands will send more flight simulators to help Ukrainian fighter pilots train to fly F-16 jets.

Arctic Sentry

The one “deliverable” from Thursday’s meeting was the announcement that NATO would launch Arctic Sentry, its response to U.S. security concerns in the high north, and an attempt to dissuade Trump from trying to seize Greenland.

It’s ostensibly aimed at countering Russian and Chinese activities or influence in the Arctic region.

But Arctic Sentry is essentially a rebranding exercise. National drills already underway in the region, like those run by Denmark and Norway, will be brought under the NATO umbrella and overseen by the organization’s military chief.

It is not a long-term NATO operation or mission.

Denmark, France, Germany will take part in the “military activities” happening under Arctic Sentry, but they have not said in what way. Finland and Sweden are likely to get involved. Belgium is considering what role it might play.

It remains unclear what role, if any, the United States will take.

“It can’t just be more from the United States,” U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker said ahead of Thursday’s meeting. “We need capable allies that are ready and strong, that can bring assets to all of these areas of our collective security.”

Trump’s renewed threats last month to annex Greenland — a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark — have deeply shaken the rest of the alliance. NATO’s primary role is to defend the territory of its 32 member states, not to undermine it.

European allies and Canada hope that Arctic Sentry and ongoing talks between the Trump administration, Denmark and Greenland will allow NATO to move on from the dispute and focus on Europe’s real security priority, Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Belgian Defense Minister Theo Francken said the Arctic security arrangement at least means that “we stop having some food fights over the Atlantic.”

“I think that the Greenland saga was not the best moment of NATO (over) the last 76 years,” he told reporters. “It was a crisis that was not needed.”

By MATT OTT, Associated Press Business Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell last week, remaining within the historically healthy range of the past few years.

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Applications for jobless aid for the week ending Feb. 7 fell by 5,000 to 227,000 from the previous week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s basically in line with the 226,000 new applications that analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet had forecast.

Filings for unemployment benefits are viewed as representative of U.S. layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the job market.

The four-week moving average of jobless claims, which balances out some of the weekly volatility, rose by 7,000 to 219,500.

The total number of Americans filing for jobless benefits for the previous week ending Jan. 31 increase by 21,000 to 1.86 million, the government said.

By FRANKLIN BRICEÑO, Associated Press

LIMA, Peru (AP) — The Trump administration on Wednesday expressed concern that China was costing Peru its sovereignty in solidifying control over the South American nation’s critical infrastructure, a blunt warning after a Peruvian court ruling restricted a local regulator’s oversight of a Chinese-built mega port.

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The $1.3 billion deepwater port in Chancay, north of Peru’s capital of Lima, has become a symbol of China’s foothold in Latin America and a lightning rod for tensions with Washington.

The U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs said on social media that it was “concerned about latest reports that Peru could be powerless to oversee Chancay, one of its largest ports, which is under the jurisdiction of predatory Chinese owners.”

It added: “We support Peru’s sovereign right to oversee critical infrastructure in its own territory. Let this be a cautionary tale for the region and the world: cheap Chinese money costs sovereignty.”

The concern comes as the Trump administration seeks to assert dominance over the Western Hemisphere, where China has long built influence through massive loans and high trade volumes.

The Chinese government on Thursday strongly rejected the U.S. comments.

“China firmly opposes and strongly deplores the U.S.’s blatant rumor-mongering and smearing of Chancay port,” said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian at a daily briefing in Beijing.

Chancay, along the Pacific coast, is part of Beijing’s Belt and Road initiative, an infrastructure program that has seen Chinese state-owned banks offer sizable loans or financial guarantees to construct seaports, airports and highways, among other projects, across multiple continents.

As Latin America’s deepest port, Chancay is capable of berthing some of the world’s largest cargo ships traveling between Asia and South America. China has been Peru’s biggest trading partner for more than a decade now.

China’s state-owned shipping and logistics company Cosco, a majority shareholder in the port, dismissed the U.S. claims.

In response to questions from The Associated Press, it said the court ruling “in no way involves aspects of sovereignty” and insisted that the port remains “under the jurisdiction, sovereignty and control of Peruvian authorities, subject to all Peruvian regulations.”

It added there were plenty of Peruvian authorities monitoring the port’s activities, including police forces, environmental regulators and customs officials.

The ruling issued Jan. 29 by a lower court judge orders Peruvian authorities to refrain from exercising “powers of regulation, supervision, oversight and sanction” over the port in Chancay.

The regulator, Ositran, which has oversight over all of the country’s other major ports, said it would appeal the decision, arguing that there was no reason to exempt Cosco Shipping from the agency’s oversight.

“(Cosco Shipping) would be the only company providing services to the public that could not be supervised,” Verónica Zambrano, president of Ositran, told a local radio station Wednesday.

Although it’s privately owned, the Chancay Port covers about 445 acres of Peruvian territory, Zambrano added, making it subject to government efforts to monitor and enforce compliance with local user protection standards.