Each year, caring.com conducts a survey to determine America’s estate plan preparedness. The results for 2022 are in and indicate that while over 50% of Americans think that estate planning is important, only 33% have a will or living trust. One positive trend in 2021 was an increase in the percentage of people between 18 and 34 who had an estate plan in place as that number went up from 16% in 2020 to 27% in 2021. 27% is also the percentage of individuals between the ages of 35 and 54 who have estate plans in place. That number is concerning considering that many of these people are the parents of dependent children.
If you have a family depending on you and your income, what would happen if that income and support suddenly disappeared? Many people have secured life insurance and other retirement benefits to provide income replacement, but all families would benefit from an estate plan that designates a legal guardian of minor children as well as someone to handle assets for the benefit of the children while they are minors.
An estate plan that includes a living trust and a will is an excellent way to achieve that objective. A married couple can create a joint living trust and both spouses can serve as trustees while living. When one spouse passes away, the surviving spouse continues to serve as sole trustee and a successor trustee is named to administer the trust after both spouse’s death.
When researchers asked people that do not have an estate plan in place why they were unprepared, 33% indicated that they did not believe they had enough assets to pass along, 40% said they just had not gotten around to it, and another 13% percent believed it was too expensive. At TrustWilly, our goal is to educate people to help them understand that estate planning is not just for the rich and that every family can benefit greatly from having an estate plan in place. To that end we have worked hard to provide a product that is both affordable and efficient to make estate planning available to everyone.
