Did you know that 68% of Americans lack a will?
Many people donโt consider estate planning to be urgent, even after the pandemic. 32% of adults under 35 said they wrote a will because of the pandemic. Estate planning covers wills, trusts, medical power of attorney, guardianship, etc. As parents, we need to make sure our assets are in order and our family is taken care of.
We asked estate planning expert, Patrick Hicks, Head of Legal for Trust & Will, to break down the legal documents we need and their importance. He also was able to provide us insight on wills and trusts, and explained what happens when there are disputes or challenges to a will.
What trends do you see in estate planning in 2022?
- A continuing trend of digitization
- Crypto and non-traditional (digital) assets becoming a vital part of estate planning.
- Further adoption of eWills and Remote Online Notarization across the U.S.
Is there a certain demographic that is showing more interest in estate planning and wills?
- Weโre seeing a shift with younger Americans now estate planning earlier than their parentโs generation, primarily with an uptick in Millennial parents and new homeowners.
- We’re also seeing a rise in the ‘sandwich generation’ who are adult children with families of their own, but are also caregivers for their aging parents. They are looking for estate planning solutions for both their parents and themselves
When should you start doing estate planning?
- Now. Every adult should have an estate plan.
- Your estate plan should also evolve as your life changes. If you have a basic estate plan when you are young, you should revisit it and consider updating after any major life events โ births, deaths, changes in marital status. You should also consider revising every 3-5 years regardless to ensure your plan reflects all updated laws.
How does Trust & Will use technology to adapt to different needs and requests?
- Weโve modernized estate planning with a design-first approach, layered on top of incredible customer support to help people throughout the process โ making estate planning simple, affordable, & accessible. Our members range from 18 to 90+ in age, and weโve built an amazing decision tree solution to accommodate almost every family in this country and canโt wait to serve millions of people in the years to come.
I did my estate planning a few years ago with Trust & Willย and I am so glad that I did. While I am not old enough to be planning for adult day care, I am definitely in the right time of my life to be planning for the unknown and what if’s.
After searching for a simple way to create a will for my husband and I, I found Trust & Will!! They made this process so easy. It was actually way easier than I thought it would be (and thank goodness because I had been dreading the thought of it!)
The trust and will process was simple and fast. I highly recommend working with Trust & Will for your estate planning.ย Their customer support was amazing and made creating our will a piece of cake. It only took 10 minutes and we finally have a will and our kids finally have guardians set up! I feel confident that if anything were to ever happen that our children would be taken care of.
