National Estate Planning Awareness Week

Yes, there really is a week for everything.

In 2008 the House of Representatives passed H. Res 1499, which encourages the distribution of estate planning information by professionals to all Americans and which supports the designation of a "National Estate Planning Awareness Week".

So welcome to National Estate Planning Awareness Week.

As silly as it may seem at first, LexisNexis found that 55{93997c19cca2413204031df21c26e128a46aabe0f65d6d1b886d87d0d40a7681} of Americans do not have a Will or other estate plan in place. More recently, in 2012, AARP reported on a survey which found that 41{93997c19cca2413204031df21c26e128a46aabe0f65d6d1b886d87d0d40a7681} of the baby boom generation, those born between 1946 and 1964, do not have a Will, and that 71{93997c19cca2413204031df21c26e128a46aabe0f65d6d1b886d87d0d40a7681} of those under 34 do not have a Will.

Why don’t we all have a Will. I knew the first answer before I read the statistic:

34{93997c19cca2413204031df21c26e128a46aabe0f65d6d1b886d87d0d40a7681} of people reported procrastination as the number one reason they did not prepare an estate plan, while 22{93997c19cca2413204031df21c26e128a46aabe0f65d6d1b886d87d0d40a7681} felt it was unnecessary and 21{93997c19cca2413204031df21c26e128a46aabe0f65d6d1b886d87d0d40a7681} felt it was too expensive.

Worse than not having a Will? Not having an advance health care directive. A 2011 Associated Press-LifeGoesStrong.com poll found that 64{93997c19cca2413204031df21c26e128a46aabe0f65d6d1b886d87d0d40a7681} of the baby boomers did not have a health care directive at all.

A 2009 Harris Interactive survey, done for Lawyers.com, found that 52{93997c19cca2413204031df21c26e128a46aabe0f65d6d1b886d87d0d40a7681} of those 65 and older did not a power of attorney for legal and financial matters in place.

What does all this mean? Well even though the numbers in all these surveys and polls do not always agree with each other, if you have not done any estate planning you are not alone - but it does not mean you do not need to do it.

At the risk of alienating everyone, I am going to agree with two parts of the House of Representatives “findings”:

Whereas careful estate planning can greatly assist Americans in preserving assets built over a lifetime for the benefit of family, heirs, or charities;

and

Whereas the implementation of an estate plan starts with sound education and planning, and then may require the proper drafting and execution of appropriate legal documents, including wills, trusts, and durable powers of attorney for health care.

What to do now? Well other than contacting us here at Handler & Levine, LLC, you can join a free webinar offered by the American Bar Association’s Section of Real Property, Trust and Estate Law. The webinar is Thursday, October 23, 2014, and you can sign up for it at the ABA website.

Most importantly - get educated and get an estate plan in place, for your sake and for the sake of your loved ones.