If you ask most people if they need to make an estate plan or if they think it’s important, the majority will probably tell you that it is. At the same time, studies have found that the majority of people do not have an estate plan.
What this suggests is that many of these people are hoping to make a plan in the future. They do understand the importance, but they haven’t done it yet, or they may even be procrastinating it. Why would this happen?
An uncomfortable subject
In some cases, people find the idea of estate planning uncomfortable. They don’t like to talk about passing away or what will happen after that. But failing to make a plan will just make that time in their family’s future more chaotic.
They think they have time
A major reason for procrastination is that people believe they have a lot of time left to make an estate plan. Someone may know that they want to have a plan in place by the time they are 70 years old, but they may only be 50. They assume they still have 20 years – even though there’s no way to know that for sure.
They don’t think they have enough assets
One interesting problem that sometimes comes up is that people believe they don’t have enough assets to make an estate plan. But this overlooks the fact that sentimental assets need to be transferred, and it also does not account for other estate planning tools, such as making a healthcare power of attorney or an advance directive.
Estate planning is very important at any age. Those who are doing it need to know about all the legal options at their disposal.