Estate Planning Statistics 2026: 60+ Facts About Wills, Trusts, and Digital Assets

Adam Green / / 14 min read
Estate Planning Statistics 2026: 60+ Facts About Wills, Trusts, and Digital Assets

Only 24% of Americans currently have a will, and 55% have no estate planning documents at all, according to Trust & Will's 2025 Estate Planning Report — the largest estate planning survey ever conducted, covering 10,000 adults. These numbers have been declining for years even as awareness of estate planning has increased. The data reveals a persistent gap between knowing you should plan and actually doing it.

This page compiles the most current and citable estate planning statistics available. It is updated quarterly and sourced primarily from Trust & Will's annual studies, Caring.com's Wills and Estate Planning surveys, AARP research, and published academic and government data. Each statistic includes its source and year for easy citation.

Last updated: February 2026 | Next update: May 2026

  • Quick navigation:

  • Who has an estate plan?

  • Why people don't plan

  • What motivates people to plan

  • Generational differences

  • The cost of not planning: probate statistics

  • Digital estate planning

  • The Great Wealth Transfer

  • Industry and market data

  • Key statistics by demographic

Who has an estate plan?

Will and trust ownership:

  • Only 24% of Americans have a will in 2025, down from 33% in 2022 and 40% in 2016. (Caring.com, 2025)

  • 55% of Americans have no estate planning documents at all — no will, no trust, no advance directive. (Trust & Will 2025 Estate Planning Report)

  • Just 31% of Americans have a basic will. Only 11% have a trust. (Trust & Will 2025 Estate Planning Report)

  • 83% of Americans recognize the importance of estate planning, yet only 31% have completed a will. (Trust & Will 2025 Estate Planning Report)

  • 71% of U.S. adults say creating an estate plan would make them feel like a good parent or partner — but most still haven't done it. (Vanilla/Caring.com)

  • The percentage of Americans with a will has declined sharply: 40% in 2016, 33% in 2022, 32% in 2024, 24% in 2025. (Caring.com annual surveys)

Who has plans vs. who doesn't:

  • Less than half of American adults have a valid estate plan. Seniors are far more likely to have formal documents, while younger adults often delay until a major life event. (ProbateCourtBond.com 2026 Snapshot, citing AARP 2024)

  • Among Americans earning $250,000–$499,999, 74% say estate planning is "very important" — the highest of any income group. Among those earning under $25,000, only 33% say the same. (Trust & Will 2025)

  • 52% of Americans over 55 say dying without an end-of-life plan would be irresponsible. (Vanilla/Caring.com)

Why do people avoid estate planning?

The most common reasons people cite for not having a will:

  1. Procrastination — they plan to do it eventually

  2. The belief they don't have enough assets to need a plan

  3. It feels complicated or expensive

  4. They find the topic uncomfortable to think about

  • More than 40% of Americans without a will say they would only create one if facing a health crisis. (Caring.com 2024)

  • 64% of Americans acknowledge the importance of having a will, but only 32% actually have one — the lowest rate since 2020. (Caring.com 2024)

  • From 2023 to 2024, there was a 6% decrease in the number of Americans with an estate plan, including a 16% decline among lower-income individuals. (Caring.com 2024)

  • 60% of Americans no longer believe that hard work guarantees economic opportunity — a finding Trust & Will links to reduced confidence in building wealth worth protecting. (Trust & Will 2025)

  • 49% of Americans are more concerned about their financial future than they were the previous year — yet this anxiety does not appear to be motivating estate planning. (Trust & Will 2025)

  • The majority of respondents believe estate planning should begin between ages 30–39, yet the actual average age at which people create a plan is 42. (Trust & Will 2025)

What motivates people to create an estate plan?

Estate planning is almost always triggered by a life event, not a calendar reminder. The data shows which events have the most impact.

  • 43% of people say a health concern or medical diagnosis would push them to make a will. (GrowLaw.co 2026, citing Caring.com)

  • Having children is the single biggest motivator for millennials to create an estate plan. In 2023, 73% of Trust & Will's millennial members had children. (Trust & Will 2024 Millennial Study)

  • Other common triggers include: buying a home, getting married, getting divorced, the death of a parent, and approaching retirement.

  • Since 2019, the number of millennials with a will has increased by more than 50%, driven in part by COVID-19 and by increased awareness of the need to document digital assets. (Caring.com/OC Wills & Trust analysis, 2024)

  • More than one in three Americans (36%) now believe you should have a will by age 35 — up 12% from 2022. (Caring.com 2024)

  • 16% of people who have a trust, will, or estate plan created it without consulting a professional. (Vanilla/Accenture)

  • When asked what would most influence them to hire an estate planning advisor, 37% of people said being offered easy-to-understand visuals about their estate plan. (Vanilla/Accenture)

How are different generations approaching estate planning?

Millennials (born approximately 1981–1996):

  • 62% of millennials have no will or trust — only 22% have a will, and over 60% have no estate planning documents at all. (Trust & Will 2025 Estate Planning Report)

  • Despite this, 81% of millennials believe they should have a will at their stage in life. (Trust & Will 2024 Millennial Study, from 15,000 respondents)

  • 56% of millennials don't know what would happen to their assets if they died without an estate plan. (Trust & Will 2024)

  • 34% of millennials don't know if their parents have an estate plan; 13% know their parents do not. (Trust & Will 2024)

  • 39% of millennials are part of the "sandwich generation" — simultaneously caring for children and aging parents. 58% say this affects their ability to pass on wealth. (Trust & Will 2024)

  • 74% of millennials say building multigenerational wealth is essential to them, compared to 45% of older generations. (Trust & Will Millennial Study)

  • 78% of millennials who work with a financial advisor feel their advisor takes the time to get to know them. Only about a third feel their advisor truly understands their estate planning needs. (Accenture)

  • Less than half of millennials (43%) expect to receive an inheritance in their lifetime. (Trust & Will 2024)

Gen Z (born approximately 1997–2012):

  • Only 15% of Gen Z has a will — the least prepared generation. (Trust & Will 2025)

  • 33% of Gen Z has some form of estate plan, outpacing older millennials in some surveys. (Trust & Will Annual Study)

  • Gen Z is more focused on digital legacy: 56% of Gen Z does not want their family to have access to their emails, direct messages, and texts after they're gone. (Trust & Will Millennial Study)

  • 65% of Gen Z plans to increase the amount of cryptocurrency in their portfolio, reflecting a major shift in how the next generation is building wealth. (HeirSearch.com 2025)

  • 69% of Gen Z believes pet care should be formally documented in an estate plan. (Trust & Will 2025)

Gen X and Boomers:

  • Older generations are better prepared, but still far from comprehensively covered.

  • Only 22% of Gen X and Boomers plan to leave an inheritance, despite 32% of millennials and 38% of Gen Z expecting one. (CEP-DC.org estate planning statistics)

  • 52% of Americans over 55 say dying without an end-of-life plan would be irresponsible. (Vanilla/Caring.com)

  • Nearly 1 in 4 millennials and Gen Z prefer naming trusted friends or professionals — rather than family members — as their executor, trustee, or guardian. (Trust & Will 2025)

What does it cost to not have an estate plan?

The financial cost of dying without an organized estate plan is substantial. Probate — the court-supervised process of settling an estate without proper planning — is slow, public, and expensive.

Probate costs:

  • Probate typically costs 3–7% of the estate's total value in attorney fees, court costs, and executor compensation. (American Wills & Estates; Clause Law Group)

  • For a $500,000 estate, that's $15,000–$35,000 consumed before a dollar reaches heirs.

  • In California, probate costs are set by statute and can reach $28,000 or more in statutory fees alone on a $1.5 million estate — paid to both the administrator and the attorney. (ClearEstate 2025)

  • The average probate process takes 20 months to complete. Only 2% of Americans correctly estimate this timeline; 37% are uncertain how long it takes. (Trust & Will 2024 Probate Study)

  • 56% of Americans have no idea what probate costs; 10% expect it to cost $1,000 or less. (Trust & Will 2024 Probate Study)

  • 52% of Americans perceive probate as "somewhat or very difficult," but only 40% believe they have a strong understanding of the process. (Trust & Will 2024 Probate Study)

  • A contested will or dispute among heirs can extend probate to 2–5 years, with legal fees that dwarf the original estate.

What avoids probate:

  • Assets with named beneficiaries (life insurance, retirement accounts) pass outside probate directly to the named individual.

  • Assets held in a revocable living trust pass to beneficiaries according to the trust document, bypassing probate entirely.

  • Accounts with payable-on-death (POD) or transfer-on-death (TOD) designations transfer directly.

  • Jointly held assets with right of survivorship transfer automatically to the survivor.

The time burden:

  • The executor of an estate typically spends 6–18 months of active work managing the process: gathering assets, paying debts, filing taxes, communicating with institutions, and distributing property.

  • The largest factor in how long and how much probate costs is how organized the deceased's affairs were. Organized documentation can cut the process in half.

Digital estate planning statistics

Digital assets represent a growing and largely unplanned portion of American estates. The combination of high value and high complexity makes this the most rapidly evolving area of estate planning.

Ownership and value:

  • The average American household now holds thousands of dollars in digital assets — sometimes hundreds of thousands — that traditional estate documents weren't designed to address. (WehavetheNews.com 2026)

  • 25% of Americans own some form of cryptocurrency as of 2025. (Statista, cited in multiple sources)

  • Globally, over 420 million people owned cryptocurrency by 2024. (IronCladFamily.com 2025)

  • 62% of millennials allocate at least one-third of their wealth to cryptocurrency. (HeirSearch.com 2025, citing 2025 analysis)

  • The global cryptocurrency market has a capitalization of approximately $2 trillion. (Forbes Finance Council analysis, cited in Digital Asset Estate Planning sources)

The planning gap:

  • Fewer than 1 in 4 Americans leave clear digital access instructions for their family. (ProbateCourtBond.com 2026 Snapshot, citing AARP 2024)

  • 79% of Americans say protecting digital assets is important, but only 44% of those with financial advisors say the topic has ever come up in a conversation with their advisor. (Bryn Mawr Trust 2024 Digital Assets Survey)

  • Only 29% of Americans feel knowledgeable about digital assets despite 79% reporting they own them. (Bryn Mawr Trust 2024)

  • 47 states have adopted RUFADAA (the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act) as of February 2025 — the primary legal framework governing how fiduciaries can access a deceased person's digital accounts. (Kitces.com March 2025)

  • If cryptocurrency is held in a self-custody wallet and no one has the private key or seed phrase, the assets are permanently inaccessible — no court order or attorney can recover them. (ACTEC 2025 Cryptocurrency Update)

Platform-specific:

  • 56% of Gen Z and 39% of millennials do not want their families to have access to their emails, direct messages, and texts after they're gone. (Trust & Will Millennial Study)

  • Google's Inactive Account Manager, Apple's Digital Legacy, and Facebook's legacy contact are the three major platforms with built-in legacy settings — but each only addresses one platform, and none addresses financial accounts, legal documents, or physical property.

  • Online will platforms have grown more than 35% since 2020, driven by convenience and accessibility. (ProbateCourtBond.com 2026)

The Great Wealth Transfer

The single largest intergenerational wealth transfer in history is underway — and most families are not prepared to receive or transfer it.

  • Baby Boomers will pass down $84.4 trillion to heirs by 2045, in what economists call the "Great Wealth Transfer." (Cerulli Associates, widely cited)

  • Over $105 trillion is expected to transfer in the U.S. over the next 25 years, with $2.5 trillion projected to transfer in 2025 alone. (CEP-DC.org 2026 statistics)

  • Of that total, $72.6 trillion will go to heirs while approximately $11.9 trillion will be donated to charities. (CEP-DC.org 2026)

  • 50% of the total wealth transfer will likely come from high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth households, which represent just 2% of all households. (CEP-DC.org 2026)

  • Only 26% of Americans expect to leave an inheritance, despite 32% of millennials and 38% of Gen Z expecting to receive one — a significant expectation gap. (CEP-DC.org 2026)

  • 52% of Americans don't know where their parents keep important estate documents. (Cambridge Trust, referenced in Safe After Me SEO strategy)

  • Probate is expected to significantly delay the Great Wealth Transfer for millions of families — as 62% of millennials have no will or trust. (Trust & Will 2024 Probate Study)

Estate planning market and industry data

  • The estate planning services market is valued at $1.26 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $2.43 billion by 2034, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.58%. (CEP-DC.org 2026)

  • The end-of-life planning market reached $33.62 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $53 billion by 2029. (Safe After Me SEO Strategy research)

  • The estate planning search market grew from 361,400 to 733,760 monthly searches between 2021 and 2024 — roughly doubling in three years. (Safe After Me SEO Strategy research)

  • When people start thinking about wills and trusts, 68% turn to Google first — before asking friends or family. (GrowLaw.co 2026)

  • 20% of Americans already trust AI-generated legal advice more than human attorneys; 34% trust it the same. (Trust & Will 2025)

  • Online will platforms have grown more than 35% since 2020, driven by demand for affordable, accessible options. (ProbateCourtBond.com 2026)

Key statistics by demographic

By income:

  • Among those earning $250,000–$499,999: 74% say estate planning is "very important" (highest of any income group).

  • Among those earning under $25,000: only 33% say estate planning is "very important."

  • Estate planning preparedness is strongly correlated with income across all age groups. (Trust & Will 2025)

By gender:

  • Men tend to be more prepared than women in estate planning preparedness, according to Trust & Will's 2025 report.

By family status:

  • Having children is the single most common catalyst for creating an estate plan among millennials.

  • 62% of Americans believe pets deserve the same level of importance as humans in estate plans; 69% of Gen Z agrees. (Trust & Will 2025)

  • 83% of millennial pet owners have assigned a guardian specifically for their pets, up from 71% the year before. (Trust & Will Millennial Study)

By generation:

GenerationHave a willHave any estate planning documentsGen Z15%~33%Millennials22%~38%Gen X~40%~50%Boomers+Higher, data variesHigher, data varies

Sources: Trust & Will 2025 Estate Planning Report; Caring.com 2024 Wills and Estate Planning Survey.

How to cite these statistics

These statistics are sourced from published reports and surveys. When citing, reference the original source:

For questions about data sourcing or to suggest a statistic for inclusion, contact the Safe After Me editorial team.

Frequently asked questions about estate planning statistics

What percentage of Americans have a will? As of the most recent data, approximately 24% of Americans have a will — the lowest rate recorded since tracking began, down from 40% in 2016. Despite 64% of Americans acknowledging the importance of having a will, only about a quarter have actually created one, according to Caring.com's 2025 survey data.

How many people die without a will each year? With only about 24% of Americans having a will and approximately 3.1 million deaths occurring in the U.S. annually (CDC data), roughly 2.3 million people die intestate — without a will — each year. Their estates pass according to state intestacy laws, which may not reflect their actual wishes.

How much does it cost if you die without an estate plan? Dying without an organized estate typically means your family goes through probate, which costs 3–7% of the estate's total value in attorney fees, court costs, and executor compensation, according to multiple legal sources. The average probate process takes 20 months, per Trust & Will's 2024 Probate Study. On a $400,000 estate, that's $12,000–$28,000 that goes to the process rather than to heirs.

What percentage of millennials have an estate plan? Only 22% of millennials have a will, and more than 60% have no estate planning documents at all, according to Trust & Will's 2025 Estate Planning Report. This is despite 81% of millennials believing they should have a will. The gap between intention and action is significant.

How much money will change hands in the Great Wealth Transfer? Baby Boomers are expected to pass down $84.4 trillion to heirs by 2045, according to Cerulli Associates. Over $105 trillion is expected to transfer in the U.S. over the next 25 years in total. This is frequently described as the largest intergenerational wealth transfer in history.

What percentage of Americans have digital assets with no plan? Fewer than 1 in 4 Americans leave clear digital access instructions for their family, despite 25% owning cryptocurrency and virtually all adults having significant digital accounts (email, social media, financial apps, cloud storage). Only 44% of those with financial advisors report that digital assets have even been discussed in those conversations, per the Bryn Mawr Trust 2024 Digital Assets Survey.

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