Some Sobering Estate Planning Facts And Statistics

Hopefully you know how important it is to have a will, or other estate documents. But even if you know that, it doesn’t mean you’re acting on that knowledge. In fact, resources from varying sources indicate that many Americans are not being diligent in having a comprehensive estate plan.

Who Does and Doesn’t Have a Will?

According to a study posted at caring.com, only about a third of Americans actually have a will—an alarmingly low number. Worse, between 30-40% of people younger than age 54, haven’t even discussed estate planning, or creating a will.

Do your parents have an estate plan? That may not make a difference because just over half of the people surveyed said that they had no idea where their parents even kept their estate planning documents.

As you may imagine, older populations, generally aged 72 and older, were most likely to have a will—they actually did quite well, reporting about 80% of them with estate planning documents.

But for the younger generation, the lower rates of estate planning documents is a frightening statistic. That’s because according to some studies, about 1 in 6 deaths are unexpected—that is, they could happen to anybody, at any age.

Race and Money

Racially, most people were about even—white populations ranked highest at having estate planning documents (still at a very low 35%), with black and Hispanic populations just about the same, at 29% and 27% respectively.

Think that money impacts the willingness to make a will? After all, people with more money have more to leave. Well, it turns out both the rich and the lesser earners, both had excuses for not having wills.

Higher earners said that they didn’t have time for estate planning documents or were too stressed to bother writing them, while those on the other socioeconomic end, predictably said that they didn’t have enough to leave to make it worth creating an estate plan (a false belief).

Other excuses for not having a will, included that they thought it would be too expensive to create, or that they didn’t know how to write one (which, if you have a good estate planning attorney, you don’t have to worry about doing on your own).

Dangers of Not Having an Estate Plan

There are costs to delaying or not creating an estate plan.

Don’t you want what you have to go to who you want it to go to? Even if you have a will, the probate process can cost up to 10% or more of an estate, just to administer a will—a reason why comprehensive estate planning that avoids probate is so important.

That’s aside from the fact that without an estate plan, you’re letting the state, via intestate statutes, dictate who in your family gets what–not you.

Take control of your financial affairs and your family’s future. Call the Torrance probate will and estate attorneys at Samuel Ford Law today.

Source:

sciencealert.com/unexpected-deaths-in-the-us-are-rising-at-an-alarming-rate