Estate Planning
Estate Planning
Caring.com's 2021 survey of 2,500 Americans reveals who has a will, who doesn't, and why—showing a surprising generational shift driven by COVID-19 and persistent gaps among the families who need a plan most.
Estate planning sounds like something for the wealthy or the elderly, but Caring.com's 2021 Wills and Estate Planning Study tells a different story. Partnering with YouGov, Caring.com surveyed 2,500 Americans in December 2020 and found that only a third had a will or similar document—even though nearly two-thirds say having one is important. The COVID-19 pandemic reshuffled who's paying attention: younger adults surged ahead for the first time, while ownership among middle-aged and older adults, the people statistically closest to needing these documents, kept falling. This guide walks through what the survey found, why the gap between believing and doing persists, and what wills, trusts, and advance directives actually do for a family.
Only 33 percent of Americans have a will, per Caring.com's 2021 survey of 2,500 adults. Younger adults now lead ownership for the first time, while will rates among those 35 and older have fallen sharply since 2019—even as most people call estate planning important.
Caring.com partnered with the polling firm YouGov to survey 2,500 Americans about wills, trusts, and other estate planning documents in December 2020. The results, published as the 2021 Wills and Estate Planning Study, found that despite a pandemic that upended daily life, the overall share of Americans with a will barely moved—rising just 2.5 percentage points from 2020, and still well below the 42 percent recorded back in 2017.
Only 33 percent of respondents said they had a will or another estate planning document in place, meaning two out of three Americans were still without one. That gap persisted even though most people say they understand why estate planning matters, revealing a disconnect between awareness and action that the survey set out to explain.
About one in three respondents said COVID-19 made them see a greater need for a will, yet 31 percent of that group never followed through. Just 5 percent of everyone surveyed named the pandemic as the actual reason they completed a document, showing how much intention gets lost between recognizing a need and finishing the paperwork.
For the first time since Caring.com began tracking this data, adults aged 18-34 were more likely to have a will than those aged 35-54. Ownership among the youngest group climbed from 16 percent in 2020 to 25 percent in 2021—a 63 percent increase in a single year, reversing a trend that had held for as long as the survey existed.
COVID-19 was the clearest driver of that jump. Nearly half of 18-34 year-olds, 45 percent, said the pandemic caused them to start thinking seriously about getting a will, and 35 percent said it pushed them to take further action, compared with only 23 percent of 35-54 year-olds and 16 percent of adults 55 and older.
Patrick Hicks, Head of Legal at Trust & Will, says younger Americans had long assumed estate planning only mattered for older people. The pandemic's unpredictability, he says, showed that a plan protects a family from risks nobody can control, regardless of age, prompting many to act for the first time.
While younger adults gained ground, the age groups that most need estate planning documents lost it. Will ownership among 35-54 year-olds fell from 37 percent in 2019 to 22.5 percent in 2021, a 39 percent decline over just two years, even as this group juggles mortgages, children, and aging parents of their own.
Adults 55 and older fared only slightly better, with ownership dropping from 60 percent to 44 percent over the same period—a 27 percent decrease. That leaves nearly half of older Americans without documented instructions for their property, health care wishes, or guardianship preferences at exactly the life stage when those documents matter most.
The decline is concerning because older adults are statistically closer to the point where these documents get used. A missing or outdated will at this stage can leave a family navigating probate court, disputed guardianship, or unclear medical decisions without any guidance from the person the plan was meant to protect.
| Document | Takes Effect | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Will | After death | Dividing property, naming a guardian |
| Living Trust | Immediately once created | Larger estates, avoiding probate |
| Advance Directive | While you're alive | Medical and end-of-life wishes |
Middle-income households showed the clearest improvement in the survey. The share of people earning $40,000 to $80,000 a year who had a will rose from 33 percent in 2020 to 39 percent in 2021, an 18 percent increase, while those earning under $40,000 became slightly less likely to have one.
Higher earners, those making more than $80,000, saw only a modest uptick in will ownership, suggesting the biggest movement happened in the middle of the income spectrum rather than at the top, where estate planning has traditionally been more common.
Ownership among Black and Hispanic Americans also improved, though it remains low overall. Wills among Black respondents rose from 25.9 percent to 27.5 percent, a 6.2 percent gain, and among Hispanic respondents from 28.2 percent to 31.6 percent, a 12 percent gain—while ownership among white Americans stayed essentially unchanged.
Not understanding how to get started has become a bigger barrier than simply putting it off. Since 2017, the share of people citing 'I don't know how to get a will' as their reason has grown 90 percent, from 4 percent to 7.6 percent, making it the most-cited obstacle in the 2021 survey.
Procrastination, meanwhile, is fading as an excuse. In 2019, about half of people without a will said they 'just hadn't gotten around to it'; by 2021 that figure had shrunk to 34 percent. Black respondents were notably less likely to cite procrastination, down 27 percent since 2020.
'I don't have enough assets to leave to anyone' remains the second most common reason people skip estate planning. It's a common misconception—wills and directives also cover guardianship and medical decisions, not just large fortunes, meaning the reasoning often understates who actually needs a plan.
A will is the most familiar estate planning document, and the survey found it's also the most common. It dictates how property and debts are divided and who becomes a guardian for minor children, taking effect only after the person who made it passes away.
A trust works differently: it takes effect as soon as it's created, not after death, which is why it's sometimes called a 'living trust.' Chas Rampenthal, General Counsel for LegalZoom, notes that the larger an estate's value, the greater the need for a trust, mainly to avoid the long, costly, and public process of probate court.
An advance directive records a person's wishes for end-of-life care or medical decisions if they become unable to communicate. Despite its importance, 18 percent of survey respondents said they didn't know what one was—a gap that financial planner Phillip Palmer warns can leave families making difficult medical choices without guidance.
A majority of respondents still believe you should have a will by age 35, consistent with prior years of the survey. About one in four say 35 is the right age to have documents in place, well before most major life events like marriage, home ownership, or children are complete.
Middle-aged respondents were notably more uncertain or more willing to delay. The share of 35-54 year-olds who said you should have a will by 35 dropped 17 percent compared with prior years, while the share who said 65 was appropriate rose 43 percent—exactly the demographic where ownership is falling fastest.
That mismatch between belief and behavior is telling. Most people intellectually agree estate planning should happen early, yet the group most likely to say it can wait is also the group whose actual will ownership has declined the most since 2019.
Nearly two-thirds of Americans say having a will is somewhat or very important, according to the survey, yet only about a third actually have one—a gap that hasn't budged much despite the pandemic's disruption. More than one in three people surveyed still say estate planning isn't important or haven't thought about it at all.
Among those without a will who have started thinking about it, most don't get far. Thirty-four percent have taken some action, but two out of three of that group have done nothing more than talk to loved ones about their wishes, stopping well short of drafting or signing a document.
Overall, 58 percent of people without a will said they haven't started thinking about a plan at all. Closing that gap starts with treating estate planning as a series of small, completable steps rather than one overwhelming project, using online services or an attorney to formalize decisions already made in conversation.
If you don't have any estate planning documents yet, the most concrete next step is to pick just one to complete first, rather than trying to build a full plan at once. For most families, that's a basic will, since it's the document people are most familiar with and the one that resolves the most common concerns: who inherits property and who cares for minor children.
Caring.com's survey found that online and remote will services gained traction during the pandemic specifically because they let people finish documents from home, without scheduling an office visit. If cost or convenience has been the barrier, an online will service or a free template reviewed by an attorney can get a basic document in place within days.
Once a will exists, revisit whether a trust or advance directive makes sense—particularly if you own significant property, want to avoid probate, or want your medical wishes documented in case you can't communicate them yourself. Talking with family now, while decisions can still be discussed and clarified, prevents disputes and confusion later.
Finally, set a reminder to review these documents every few years or after major life events like marriage, a new child, or a significant change in assets. An estate plan isn't a one-time task—it's most useful when it reflects your current circumstances and wishes, not decisions made a decade earlier.
Caring.com's 2021 survey found that just a third of Americans have a will, even though most consider one important. Younger adults now outpace their middle-aged peers for the first time, while ownership among those 35 and older has fallen sharply since 2019.
Caring.com's 2021 Wills and Estate Planning Study, based on a YouGov survey of 2,500 Americans, shows that the COVID-19 pandemic changed who thinks about estate planning far more than it changed who actually finishes it. Younger adults made real progress, with will ownership jumping 63 percent in a single year and, for the first time, surpassing ownership among 35-54 year-olds. But that gain sits alongside a troubling decline among middle-aged and older adults, the very people statistically closest to needing these documents used. Across every group, the biggest obstacle has shifted from procrastination toward confusion about how to start. The data suggests the fix isn't more awareness—nearly two-thirds already agree a will matters—it's breaking the process into smaller, achievable steps: naming a guardian, listing assets, and signing one document at a time.
If a parent or spouse is 55 or older with no will, trust, or advance directive, don't wait for a health crisis to raise it. A sudden hospitalization or cognitive decline can make it legally difficult to create these documents at all, forcing families into guardianship proceedings or probate court instead of following clear wishes.