How People Feel About Estate Planning in Their 20’s, 40’s, 60’s and 80’s
How People Think About Estate Planning
This post describes how the public thinks about estate planning at different stages of their life, and then you can determine whether you are similar to others, or whether your thinking is unique.
Not Everyone Who Should Have an Estate Plan Does
For example, virtually all estate planning lawyers and professionals take the opinion that all young adults should have an estate legal plan in place - perhaps a college student gets sick or gets in an accident - they should have powers of attorney. Young moms and dads in their 20’s should have a will which names a legal guardian to be those back-up parents who can raise the kids. But in reality, most young adults don’t have an estate plan. Why is that? Well, everyone of course is entitled to have their own opinion and take their own actions regarding the creation and maintaining of an estate plan, but after having tens of thousands of conversations with people over the last three+ decades about estate planning, I’m here to generalize how people think about estate planning at different stages of their lifetime.
20’s and 30’s
First, let’s talk about how those young adults think - the ones in their 20’s (and even their 30’s) - younger millennials and Gen-Zers. This class of young adults, in general, is not motivated to take any substantive “estate planning action.” I think there are two reasons why this group, generally, doesn’t engage in estate planning. First, they think they are invincible - they think they will live forever and estate planning is something they can put off. Second, people in their 20’s and 30’s don’t consider themselves to have “an estate.” They are simply trying to survive buying their first home and to start a savings plan or retirement plan. Now remember, I am generalizing here. I’ve created estate plans for 18 year olds who were starting a business or had rental properties. So realize there are exceptions to my generalizations - heck, if you are watching this video you likely are an exception so let me know about it in the comments below. And hey, estate planning is actually critical for those young parents in their 20’s and 30’s because failing to leave the estate in trust for young children is likely to cause serious court involvement and put money in the hands of people who should not have their hands on it.
40’s and 50’s
Next, let’s talk about the group of people in their 40’s and 50’s - the older millennials and the younger Gen Xers. This is the one group that I really can’t make a generalization about here, because a large portion of this group says, “I can put this off a little longer.” While another large portion of this group wants to do the prudent or responsible thing or has had some life event happen that triggered a strong enough desire to take the appropriate estate planning action, whether that life event was seeing their parents or other colleagues pass away, an illness scare, going through a difficult probate or estate settlement process, or just an all-around desire to do the adult thing and get the legal affairs in order.
60’s and 70’s
Now let’s move on to the group of people that are in their 60’s and 70’s - basically the Baby Boomers. This group? Slam dunk, no question, they are highly motivated to have their estate in order. It’s likely that one or both of their parents have died; they have had one or more health issues arise; they have likely seen several friends, colleagues, and high school classmates pass away. These Baby Boomers have retired or are close to retirement and have likely accumulated most of the assets that they will accumulate during their lifetime, and they may have a few unique family circumstances (blended family issues, and they’ve seen children get divorced and lose assets, for example) and now they are in the mode of, “I can’t leave a mess for my survivors…Let’s get serious about getting all of this straight now… They are thinking, “I have some things I want to make sure happen, and I have certain people who I want to be in control of things, so let’s get this right.” They have too much to lose by not engaging in estate planning. They want to protect their spouse; they want their survivors to avoid probate; they have children whose inheritance they want to secure, and they may even want to provide for the education of their grandchildren.
80’s and 90’s
And finally, let’s talk about our most senior citizens - those in their 80’s and 90’s - generally referred to as The Silent Generation. Pardon my insensitivity, but there is no question that these people are knocking on death’s doorstep - and as one elderly client referenced the football analogy by saying he was well into the “4th quarter,” the concern is not “Should these people have POAs for financial and health care? Should they document their preferred asset distribution and name executors and trustees? The concern often about these folks is, “Is it too late?” For many, once they get into their late 80’s and 90’s, their capacity to generally understand estate planning concepts starts to diminish. As my mother-in-law used to say, “They get Old-Timers,” which is another way to say they get Alzheimer’s disease or dementia. And it’s often the children of these people in their 80’s and 90’s who attempt to initiate estate planning on behalf of their parents, but when the attorney engages the elderly person, it quickly becomes apparent that the elderly person does not have the capacity to generally understand the nature and consequences of the dispositions that are attempting to be made.
So there you have it. From Gen Z, to Millennials, to Gen X, to Baby Boomers, to the Silent Generation - now you should have a general - and I repeat general - understanding of how they think about estate planning. Have a great day!