Studies Indicate More than Half of Adults Do Not Have Estate Plans

Have you been putting off getting your estate plan done? You’re not alone. A 2017 study by AARP showed that only about 40 percent of all American adults have a will or living trust established.

This is an alarming statistic when taken on its own, but when breaking the results down by different age demographics, one gets a clearer picture of who is and is not moving ahead with estate planning. About 81 percent of people older than 72 had estate plans, compared to 58 percent of people between 53 and 71 (Baby Boomers), just 36 percent of Gen Xers and 22 percent of Millennials.

Many factors cause people todelay estate planning 

It is not surprising that younger people lead the pack when it comes to not having a will in place. There simply is not the same sense of urgency among younger people to get it done, as they may feel as though they have many years ahead of them.

The unfortunate truth is that none of us knows exactly how long we will be around. Of the people surveyed who had not yet taken on estate planning, the most common reason why they had put it off was that they just hadn’t gotten around to it yet. The second-most common answer was that they did not believe they had enough assets for estate planning to make sense.

It is crucial to at least have simple estate planning documents in place so that you can maintain some control in terms of how you pass your assets to your friends and family members. A lack of any estate plan will result in you completely forgoing control over the distribution of your assets.

To learn more about the numerous benefits of estate planning, speak with a dedicated Tampa attorney at BaumannKangas Estate Law.