If you poll people regarding their estate planning, you may be surprised by what you find. Researchers who have done this discovered that most people just don’t have an estate plan at all. Only about a third of Americans who were asked said that they already had a plan in place. Some just had a basic will, while others had an extensive plan involving a variety of documents – trusts, powers of attorney, etc.
But why is it that most people don’t have an estate plan? Isn’t that a significant risk to take for both them and their family? When asked why they hadn’t done any planning yet, here are a few reasons people gave.
They didn’t have time
Often, people just say that they’re too busy. They want to make an estate plan, but they haven’t found the time to do it. Maybe they have young children who are in school and who are participating in extracurricular activities. Between family life and work, they don’t feel they have much time for anything else.
They don’t know how to make a plan
Other people claimed that they just didn’t know what documents they needed or how to get the estate planning process started. Can they make a handwritten will? Where do they file the paperwork? What documents do they need? If they had more information, they could get started.
They are going to do it later
Often, the issue is just procrastination. People say that they’re going to make an estate plan, but they’re going to do it later in life. Some of them choose to wait until they have acquired more assets, for instance, while others want to wait until they are older and closer ot retirement age.
Regardless of the reasons given, procrastinating estate planning is a significant risk. It’s often better to make a plan in advance and update it over the years. Be sure you know what legal options you have.The post Why don’t more people make estate plans? first appeared on Scott + Hespen Law, PLLC.
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