Estate Planning Study
Estate Planning Study
Caring.com's 2022 survey of 2,600+ adults found most Americans see estate planning as important, but only a third have a will — and misconceptions about wealth are the biggest reason why.
Caring.com's 2022 Wills and Estate Planning Study, conducted with YouGov among more than 2,600 American adults, set out to answer a persistent question: if so many people agree estate planning matters, why do so few actually do it? The survey found that more than half of Americans consider estate planning at least somewhat important, yet only 33% have a will or living trust in place. Procrastination topped the list of excuses, but a striking 1 in 3 people without a plan said they simply don't believe they have enough assets to justify one. The findings, part of an annual series Caring.com has run since 2015, also traced how the pandemic, inflation anxiety, and generational attitudes are reshaping who plans ahead and who keeps putting it off.
Caring.com's 2022 survey of 2,600+ adults found just 33% have a will, despite 50%+ calling estate planning important. Procrastination and the mistaken belief of "not enough assets" are the top barriers.
Caring.com partnered with YouGov to survey more than 2,600 American adults about their estate planning habits, continuing an annual series the company has run since 2015. The headline finding was a gap between attitude and action: over 50% of respondents said estate planning is at least somewhat important, but only 33% actually have a will or living trust. That gap has persisted across most of the years Caring.com has tracked it, suggesting the barrier isn't awareness of the need but something else getting in the way.
The study also found that 1 in 3 Americans without an estate plan believe they simply don't own enough to justify creating one. That belief turned out to be one of the most consistent and revealing threads in the data, cutting across income, education, and age lines in ways that shaped how different groups approached the topic.
Procrastination was the single most common explanation people gave for not having a will, cited by 40% of respondents without one. It outranked every other reason, including cost and confusion about the process. Not having enough assets to leave behind was the second most common reason, at 33%.
Smaller but still notable shares pointed to practical obstacles: 13% said estate planning seemed too expensive, and 12% said they didn't know how to get a will started. Patrick Hicks, General Counsel and Head of Legal at Trust & Will, told Caring.com that this hesitation often reflects a misunderstanding of what estate planning actually covers. "Estate planning isn't just for the rich," he said, noting that even people without a home or large retirement account still benefit from having basic documents in place for themselves and their families.
Income and education level changed which excuse people reached for. Among the highest earners, those making $80,000 or more per year, 63% said they simply hadn't gotten around to estate planning yet, by far the most common answer in that group. Nearly two out of three respondents with postgraduate degrees gave the same explanation.
Respondents with a high school education or less told a different story. They were nearly half as likely as postgraduates to blame procrastination, and 33% more likely to say their lack of assets meant they didn't need a will. In short, wealthier and more educated Americans recognize the need but delay acting on it, while lower-income Americans are more likely to opt out of the idea entirely.
| Reason Cited | Share of Respondents | Most Likely Group |
|---|---|---|
| Haven't gotten around to it | 40% | High earners ($80k+), postgrads |
| Not enough assets to leave | 33% | Lower income, less education |
| Process seems too expensive | 13% | General population |
| Don't know how to start | 12% | General population |
The pandemic left a measurable mark on estate planning behavior. According to the survey, Americans who personally had a serious case of COVID-19 were 66% more likely to have a will than those who hadn't. Confronting a real health scare appears to have pushed many people to formalize decisions they had been avoiding.
That shift shows up generationally too: the number of 18-34 year-olds with estate planning documents rose 50% since the pandemic began. For a group historically among the least likely to have a will, that's a substantial jump, and it suggests that direct experience with mortality risk, more than age or wealth, can be the strongest motivator to finally get documents in place.
Even with that pandemic-driven increase, younger adults remain far behind older generations in one key respect: talking about it. The survey found that 41% of adults ages 18-34 hadn't discussed getting estate planning documents with anyone, and roughly 1 in 3 adults ages 35-54 hadn't started that conversation either.
Older adults were a different story. About 3 out of 4 respondents in older age brackets said they had discussed getting a will with someone. That contrast matters for families, because an estate plan someone hasn't talked about with a spouse, adult child, or attorney is far more likely to stay unfinished than one that's already part of an ongoing family conversation.
Economic anxiety played a quiet but significant role in the findings. Citing a New York Times survey, Caring.com noted that nearly 9 out of 10 U.S. adults are concerned about inflation, a fear that shapes how people perceive their own financial standing. When people feel poorer, even without a real change in assets, they are more likely to postpone or abandon estate planning altogether.
Hicks pointed to this as a costly misjudgment. Cutting corners by skipping a will during uncertain economic times, he said, is a common mistake that overlooks the long-term stakes: without basic documents, families can face confusion, delay, and unnecessary legal costs regardless of how large or small the estate actually is.
Taken together, the numbers point to a simple conclusion: the belief that estate planning is only for people with significant wealth is both common and mistaken. A basic will or living trust primarily exists to make decisions clear, not to distribute a fortune, and it matters just as much for a modest estate as a large one.
For families with aging parents, the survey's generational findings are a useful prompt. If nearly 3 out of 4 older adults have at least discussed getting a will, that's an opening to ask direct questions: Does a will exist? Has it been updated? Who has copies? Those conversations, more than net worth, are what the data suggests actually moves people from intending to plan to actually doing it.
Only a third of Americans have a will or living trust, even though most say estate planning matters. The top reason people skip it isn't a lack of money — it's procrastination, followed by the mistaken belief they have nothing worth leaving behind.
Caring.com's 2022 Wills Survey, conducted with YouGov among more than 2,600 American adults, found a widening gap between how important people say estate planning is and whether they've actually done it: over half call it important, but only a third have a will or living trust. Procrastination remains the top reason people give, especially among higher earners and the most educated, while lower-income and less-educated respondents are more likely to assume they have nothing worth planning for. COVID-19 pushed many younger adults to act for the first time, but conversations about estate planning still lag badly across age groups. The clearest takeaway for families is that a will isn't a luxury reserved for the wealthy — it's a basic tool for directing who cares for your children, your pets, and your affairs, regardless of your net worth.
If an aging parent has no will, hasn't updated one in years, or family members disagree about who should serve as executor, treat it as urgent rather than optional. Consult an estate planning attorney promptly, especially where remarriage, blended families, or significant health changes complicate who should make decisions.