Most people neglect their estate planning. The rate does increase as people get older, but studies still find that the majority of people do not have an estate plan right now.
From the outside, you may be surprised to learn that so many people haven’t even written a will. What are some of the reasons why they would neglect to take this very important step?
They’ll do it later
Forty percent of people in the survey said that they just hadn’t gotten around to making an estate plan yet. This was the most common reason cited. The implication is that people believe they can draft a will as they get closer to the end of their lives. People should be doing estate planning in their 40s and 50s, but they’re just waiting until they’re in their 60s or 70s.
They don’t have enough
Another common issue, expressed by about a third of respondents, was just that they didn’t have enough financial assets. They didn’t think that they needed to make an estate plan. It’s important to remember that estate planning is about more than assets, and it can also be used for things like passing on family heirlooms or making decisions in advance.
They don’t know how
Finally, roughly 12% of people said they didn’t know how to make an estate plan. What documents would they need? Where would they need to file those documents? How should they get the estate planning process started? Simply not knowing how to begin holds a lot of people back.
If you haven’t made an estate plan yet, it is a risk to both you and your family. It’s wise to look into all of your legal options.