I’ll get to it some day…….
It’s been said that the only certainties in life are death and taxes. A vast majority of us comply with the annual mid-April tax filing exercise, yet many of us have ignored the other certainty. Here are some revealing statistics, courtesy of AARP and Caring.com.
- Only 4 in 10 Americans have a will or living trust.
- Almost 20% of Americans aged 72 or older do not have estate planning documents.
- Only 58% of Baby Boomers (ages 53 to 71) have estate planning documents.
- The vast majority of millennials (ages 18 to 36) —78%— do not have a will.
- Gen X (ages 37 to 52) members are only slightly better with 64% not having a will.
- Only 36% of American adults with children under the age of 18 have an end-of-life plan in place. For this group, a will is particularly important as it is used to name guardians for minor children.
- Only 53% of Americans have a health care power of attorney.
Do we think that it won’t happen to us?