The short answer
Most parents cannot answer this accurately, and the reason is structural rather than personal. Planning happens in fragments — an insurance policy one year, a conversation with a sibling another, a half-finished Will — and the fragments never get assembled into a single view. What is left is a general sense of unease that is not a reliable measure of anything.
A better answer comes from asking narrow, checkable questions. Not "have I planned for the future" but "could someone other than me run my child's day tomorrow without asking me anything". Not "are we financially secure" but "do I know what lifetime care is likely to cost and what is currently set aside for it". Questions like these have real answers — yes, partly, no — and the pattern of those answers is what preparedness actually is.
When families do this, the result is usually uneven rather than uniformly bad. Medical information tends to be strong, because it is exercised constantly. Legal authority and funding tend to be weak, because nothing forces the issue until it is urgent. The specific unevenness matters much more than an overall score, because it tells you where an hour of work buys the most.
The practical value is a shortlist. Not thirty things to fix — three, in order, chosen because they would cause the most damage if left.
What changes the answer
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Your child's age, and whether they are legally an adult
Adulthood changes decision-making authority, benefits, residential options and the urgency of legal arrangements, often abruptly.
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Level of daily support needed
A child who needs constant supervision and one who lives semi-independently produce very different plans, and different orders of priority.
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Whether there is a second parent or committed family member
A sole parent carries a concentration risk that a two-parent household does not, and the plan has to reflect that honestly.
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Siblings — how many, what age, and what has been discussed
Siblings are frequently the assumed successors and frequently the least consulted. What they have actually agreed to changes the plan materially.
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How much of the routine exists only in your head
This is the most commonly underestimated gap, and the cheapest to close.
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Whether legal authority is in place for an adult child
Guardianship or its equivalent takes time to arrange and cannot be improvised in a crisis.
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Whether anyone else could find the documents
A plan that exists but cannot be located scores the same as no plan on the day it is needed.
What parents often miss
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Counting intentions as progress
"We have discussed it" and "it is written down and they have a copy" feel similar and are not. Only one of them survives you.
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Mistaking effort for coverage
Families who have worked hardest on one area — usually finance — often assume the rest is proportionally covered. It typically is not.
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Not distinguishing "no" from "not sure"
Not knowing whether your successor has agreed is a different and more dangerous state than knowing they have not. Uncertainty hides gaps in a way a clear no does not.
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Treating unfinished as worthless
A partly-completed arrangement is materially better than none, and is usually much closer to done than it feels. Abandoning it because it is imperfect is the more common error.
What an uneven picture looks like
A couple with a fifteen-year-old daughter with autism assume they are behind on everything, because the subject makes them anxious and they avoid it.
Working through the questions, the picture turns out to be lopsided rather than bleak. Medical information is excellent — appointments, medication and history are all current, because they live with it weekly. The school knows who to call. What is missing is anything at all outside the house: no written routine, no successor who has been asked directly, no legal arrangement anticipating their daughter turning eighteen in three years, and life cover bought before her diagnosis that has never been reviewed against what her care will actually cost.
Their first three actions are therefore not "start planning". They are: write the routine down, ask the sister directly, and look up what guardianship requires before the birthday that makes it urgent.
What to do next
The readiness check is thirty-one questions across the areas above. It scores nothing you mark as not applicable, distinguishes "partly" from "no", and ends with a short ordered list of what to do first — plus a report you can download and work through offline.
No sign-in, nothing saved, and skipping questions is expected rather than penalised.
Related planning areas
Important
LegacyNest is a planning tool, not a law firm, medical practice or financial adviser. This page is general information about how families approach continuity planning. It is not advice about your family, and nothing here creates a professional relationship. Decisions with legal or financial consequences should be taken with a qualified professional who knows your circumstances.