Did you know that most people don’t have an estate plan? Everyone is going to need one eventually. But it’s still true that roughly 2/3 of people have never made a plan and do not yet have one in place.
One of the main reasons for this is simply that people are planning to do it later in life. They’re procrastinating. It’s not that they don’t believe they need an estate plan or they don’t understand the value. They may even know about some of the tools they can use, such as setting up a trust or writing a will. But they just believe they can do it in the future.
Estate plans can be modified
If you’ve been putting it off for this reason, the important thing to note is that procrastination creates an extra risk for your family. You may pass away unexpectedly before you’ve gotten around to making that plan. Your family would then have very little guidance regarding how to distribute assets, how to make your medical decisions and much more.
Instead of putting it off, a better tactic could be to just update the plan periodically. For instance, you could make a basic estate plan in your 30s so that your medical wishes are known, and to take care of your minor children. But if those children grow up and move out of the house, you can update the plan to pass assets on to them in different ways, to remove guardianship and much more.
Overall, having an estate plan and updating it is far less risky than waiting to make it in the future. Be sure you know exactly what legal steps to take.
