Study Shows Most Americans Do Not Have An Estate Plan
A study conducted by Harris Interactive for Lawyers.com shows that around half of Americans have no estate planning documents in place. The biggest reason for that was that many were deterred by the legal cost and erroneously believed that without a large amount of assets, they had no need to plan at all.
First, the legal cost of setting up an estate plan is, in most cases, going to be less than your heirs have to spend in legal costs. Your heirs will have to hire an attorney to probate their estate. The legal fees usually end up being much higher to probate the estate than they would have been to have a proper estate plan in place which completely avoids probate.
Second, most mistakenly believe also that your surviving spouse automatically gets all your assets, no matter how much or how little, upon your death. Actually, only 16 states allow a surviving spouse to inherit everything. Most states have some sort of split between the surviving spouse and the decedent’s children. This can get messy with blended families.
f you are one of the majority of Americans who do not have any estate plan in place, please consult with our estate planning attorney at Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A. to learn more about why you really do need an estate plan.
