Estate Planning – Are You Prepared?
Most Americans believe estate planning is important, but far fewer have actually done it: caring.com’s 2022 survey found that while over 50% of Americans considered estate planning important, only 33% had a will or living trust. If your family depends on you, that gap is worth closing now — and it is easier than most people expect.
Each year, caring.com conducts a survey of America’s estate plan preparedness. Its 2022 results showed one positive trend: the percentage of people between 18 and 34 with an estate plan rose from 16% in 2020 to 27% in 2021. But 27% was also the share of people between 35 and 54 with a plan — concerning, considering many in that group are 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 benefits to provide income replacement, but all families would benefit from an estate plan that designates a legal guardian for 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 spouses’ deaths.
When researchers asked people without an estate plan why they were unprepared, 33% said they did not believe they had enough assets to pass along, 40% said they just had not gotten around to it, and another 13% believed it was too expensive. At TruWill, our goal is to help people understand that estate planning is not just for the rich — every family can benefit greatly from having an estate plan in place. To that end, we have worked hard to make estate planning affordable, efficient, and available to everyone.
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