Estate Planning Basics
Estate Planning Basics
A Caring.com survey of over 1,000 U.S. adults found that most people still don't have a will, a living trust, or a health care power of attorney in place.
Talking about what happens after you die isn't anyone's idea of a good afternoon, but a Caring.com survey conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International found that avoiding the topic is the norm, not the exception. Researchers asked 1,003 U.S. adults whether they had estate-planning documents like a will or living trust, and only 42 percent said yes. For parents with children under 18, the number drops to 36 percent. The reasons people give aren't really about money or complexity; they're about procrastination and discomfort. This guide walks through what the survey actually found, why the gaps are so wide across age groups, and what families, especially those caring for aging parents or raising young kids, should do about it now rather than later.
Just 42% of U.S. adults have a will or living trust, and only 36% of parents with kids under 18 do. Age and procrastination, not wealth, are the biggest predictors, and the fix is often a single afternoon of paperwork.
Caring.com commissioned Princeton Survey Research Associates International to poll 1,003 U.S. adults in January about their end-of-life planning. The core question was straightforward: do you currently have a will or living trust, and if not, why not? Researchers also asked separately about health care power of attorney, a distinct document that lets someone else make medical decisions if you're incapacitated.
The results were consistent across nearly every demographic slice: most Americans have not done this paperwork, and the ones who have skipped it tend to give the same handful of reasons. Financial coach Craig Dacy told Caring.com that many people avoid setting up a will simply because they don't want to think about their own death, even though doing so protects the people they leave behind from added stress.
Understanding the survey's actual numbers matters because the gaps aren't evenly distributed. They cluster heavily by age and, to a lesser extent, by whether someone has children. That pattern is the throughline for everything else in this guide.
The headline number from the survey is stark: just 42 percent of U.S. adults currently have estate-planning documents such as a will or living trust. That means close to six in ten adults have no legal instructions in place for how their assets, and in some cases their children, should be handled if they die.
Estate planning attorney Matthew Underwood explained to Caring.com that a will's core function is telling a probate court how to distribute your assets. Probate gives public notice of a death, lets creditors file claims, and distributes what's left to beneficiaries. Skipping a will doesn't skip this process; it just hands the decisions to the state.
"If you don't have a will, the state has one for you," Underwood said, pointing out that state laws of succession take over by default. For most families, that means outcomes nobody actually chose — which is precisely what a will is designed to prevent.
When the survey asked people without estate documents why they hadn't set them up, the single most common answer, given by 47 percent of respondents, was simply "I just haven't gotten around to it." Not cost, not confusion about the process — inertia.
Experts told Caring.com this tracks with what they see in practice: an aversion to end-of-life planning rooted in equal parts fear and procrastination. Nobody wants to spend an afternoon imagining their own funeral, so the task keeps sliding to next month, then next year.
The practical takeaway is that the biggest barrier isn't logistical. Most states allow a simple will to be drafted for a modest fee or even for free through online services, which means the 47 percent whose only obstacle is procrastination could likely resolve it in a single sitting.
| Age Group | Have a Will/Trust | Have Health Care POA |
|---|---|---|
| 72 and older | 81% | 83% |
| 53–71 | ~60% | Not reported |
| 37–52 (Gen X) | ~36% | Not reported |
| 18–36 (Millennials) | ~22% | 41% |
Older Americans were, unsurprisingly, far more likely to have a plan in place: 81 percent of respondents age 72 or older reported having a will or living trust. But that number falls off a cliff moving down the age brackets. A full 78 percent of millennials, ages 18 to 36, have no will at all.
Generation X, ages 37 to 52, wasn't far behind, with 64 percent lacking a will. Even in the 53-to-71 bracket, closer to retirement age, 40 percent still hadn't set one up. Estate-planning veteran Jack Hillis, president of Hillis Financial Services, told Caring.com that younger adults assume tragedy happens to other people, and associate wills with the deaths of grandparents rather than something relevant to their own stage of life.
Hillis added that even baby boomers who know intellectually that they should have a will often keep delaying it, because the process forces uncomfortable questions about mortality that are easy to postpone indefinitely.
Nearly three in ten survey respondents without a will, 29 percent, said they skipped it because they "don't have enough assets to leave anyone." That belief is common, especially among younger adults with fewer accumulated assets, but experts say it misunderstands what a will actually does.
A will isn't only about dividing up wealth. It also names an executor to handle your affairs, specifies who inherits sentimental or modest belongings, and, for parents, names a guardian for minor children. None of those functions require substantial assets to matter.
Underwood's framing cuts to the point: regardless of age or net worth, the real choice is between deciding for yourself where your property and responsibilities go, or letting a court apply generic state default rules to your life. Asset level doesn't change which of those two outcomes you'd prefer.
Among the survey's most striking findings was that just 36 percent of adults with children under 18 have any end-of-life plan in place. Given what a will does for parents specifically, that's arguably the most consequential gap the survey uncovered.
An expert quoted in the survey, identified as Giles, put it bluntly: if you have children, the sole purpose of naming guardians alone justifies having a will. Choosing who raises your kids if something happens to you isn't a pleasant exercise, but skipping it doesn't remove the decision, it just hands it to a judge.
Without a will nominating guardians, a family court decides who takes custody of minor children after both parents die, based on its own judgment rather than the parents' wishes. For any parent, that alone is reason enough to move a will up the priority list.
The survey also asked about health care power of attorney, the document that appoints someone to make medical decisions on your behalf if you're unable to. Here again, the age gap was wide: 83 percent of adults over 72 have one, compared with just 41 percent of millennials.
Underwood argued this document may matter even more than a will, and earlier in life than most people assume. Once a child turns 18, parents are legally cut off from making medical decisions for them, even in an emergency.
Underwood described hearing from parents whose college-age children were hospitalized while traveling, only to be told by doctors that they couldn't discuss the case because the student had no health care power of attorney on file. Every adult, not just seniors, is a candidate for this document.
Fewer than half of U.S. adults have a will, and barely a third of parents with young kids do. Procrastination, not cost or complexity, is the main reason, which means the fix is more accessible than most people assume.
The Caring.com survey makes one thing clear: not having a will isn't a wealth problem, it's an avoidance problem. Forty-seven percent of people without documents admit they simply haven't gotten around to it, and the consequences fall hardest on parents of young children and on families who'd rather decide their own affairs than leave them to a probate judge. Whether you're helping an aging parent finalize a will and health care power of attorney, or you're a parent who has put off naming a guardian, the survey suggests the barrier is rarely logistical. A single afternoon with an attorney or a reputable online service can close most of this gap, and it's worth treating that afternoon as urgent rather than someday.
If a parent or aging loved one has no will, no named health care power of attorney, and declining health, treat it as urgent rather than someday. Hospitalization or a sudden cognitive decline can make it legally impossible to execute these documents, leaving families without guidance during a medical crisis and courts, not relatives, deciding what happens next.