The Pandemic Resulted in More People Creating Wills

Numerous reports have indicated the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic throughout the last year encouraged more people to create a will.

One study conducted by LegalZoom found 32 percent of people between the ages of 18 to 34 got a will during the pandemic. Twenty-one  percent of those people who had a will made did so specifically because they had COVID-19 or knew someone who did.

Of all Americans with a will, approximately 26 percent got one because they were worried about the effects and dangers of COVID-19.

A long way to go

Despite the increase in people (especially young people) getting wills made in the last year due to the pandemic, there is still an issue with many Americans not having any type of estate plan at all.

The same survey found 62 percent of American adults do not have a will, and of the ones who do, 12 percent created them in the last year and 44 percent in the last five years.

This is, in many cases, due to the widespread belief that you must have a certain amount of money or assets to make an estate plan worthwhile, or that you should wait until you have children before seriously thinking about estate planning. This is certainly untrue—no matter how much money you have or where you are at in your life, estate planning allows you to control what happens to your possessions after your death and allows you to take control of certain end-of-life medical decisions.

For more information about the benefits of estate planning and why it’s important at any age to prioritize it, contact an experienced lawyer in Tampa, FL at BaumannKangas Estate Law.