Skipping estate planning: National survey shows number of people with wills has declined

As a solo practitioner, one of Elizabeth Homes’ focus areas is elder law and estate planning.

That means she prepares a lot of wills and trusts for clients.

The first will Homes drew up came at the request of a client who was dying from cancer.

Homes, a Carmel-based attorney, said she made a home visit to the client to hear their wishes and draw up the will.

“It was a very humbling experience to know you could put their mind at ease by putting a plan in place,” she said.

But a recent national survey shows a slight dip in the number of U.S. residents who have wills.

Caring.com’s 2024 Wills and Estate Planning Study reports that, for the first time since 2020, the number of Americans with a will has decreased.

In 2024, only 32% of Americans have a will, the survey reports — a 6% decline from last year, even though 64% of Americans say having a will is very or somewhat important.

Even with the survey’s results, Homes and other Indiana estate planning attorneys say they’ve seen no slow down at their offices.

Rebecca Geyer, a fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and chair of the organization’s Indiana chapter, said December and January are usually her busiest months for wills. January, she said, is a kind of “New Year’s resolution” time when some clients decide they need to get their estate planning in order.

“I think all of us are pretty busy,” Geyer said.

Locally, the issue isn’t that people don’t want wills, Geyer added — it’s that there aren’t as many estate planning attorneys as there used to be. Instead, she said, there are general practitioners who also dabble in will preparation.

Age gaps

The Caring.com survey noted that young Americans started engaging in estate planning at higher rates during the COVID pandemic.

Geyer, too, said she observed in some clients a surge in urgency as far as preparing a will during the pandemic.

Since 2020, the number of young adults ages 18-34 with a will has increased by 50%, going from 16% in 2020 to 24% in 2024, according to the survey.

But during the same time, the rate of middle-aged and older adults with wills decreased by 7% and 10%, respectively.

According to the survey, when Americans who do not have a will were asked what would motivate them to create one, 43% said a health concern or medical diagnosis, while others pointed to purchasing a home or retiring.

But 23% said nothing would motivate them to create an estate plan.

Adults ages 18-34 are significantly more likely to say they are influenced by the media to get a will than older Americans, the report continues, with 34% of young adults saying something they saw in the media or online motivated them to create an estate plan, versus 3% of Americans ages 55 or over — a 168% difference.

Further, younger Americans are more than four times as likely to set up a will before traveling.

Only 5% of the 55-plus demographic said they were motivated to get a will before upcoming travel, compared to 22% of those 34 years old or younger.

Emerging trends

Another change Homes has noticed in her estate planning practice is clients becoming more particular about their wills.

For example, some clients are very specific about where they want their assets to go, while others wish to use their wills to specify things like who will take care of their animals.

“People are becoming more expressive of their preferences,” Homes said.

In Geyer’s practice, many clients are concerned about their children going through a divorce and potentially losing part or all their inheritance.

To that end, she said her firm tries to handle will preparation as quickly as possible.

“A simple will should not be a lengthy process to go through,” Geyer said.

Shawn Scott, a partner with Scott Williams Law LLC, recalled one of the first wills that she prepared, which involved a same sex couple who could not legally marry at the time.

That case really highlighted the importance of having a will, Scott said.

“For some people, it was about more than just passing on your assets,” she said, adding that “a lot’s changed since then.”

Another change highlighted by Scott is the rise of do-it-yourself online sites for will preparation.

Self-service websites like LegalZoom.com start pricing at $89 for a will and $279 for a trust.

Scott noted some of those sites are heavily advertised on social media.

“It doesn’t surprise me to see more people trying to do it themselves rather than hiring an attorney to do it for them,” she said.

Continued decline?

Scott estimated that she prepares about 200 wills a year. Although she said she hasn’t seen any drop off in wills at her office, she acknowledged she wouldn’t be shocked if there’s a slight decline nationally.

People are also choosing to set up revocable living trusts more often, Scott added.

Two key differences between a will and a trust are that the former can be used to name a power of attorney and a guardian for children, while the latter cannot.

In terms of the overall decline in estate planning attorneys, Scott said estate planning is not “the sexy area to practice” for many young attorneys.

But for her, she described it as a very rewarding area of practice.

“If you have anything and you want it passed on in accordance with your wishes,” she said, “you need to have a plan in place.”•