You might think that most of the adults you know already have their estate plan in place, and you are one of the few who do not. You would, however, be wrong.

A recent report found that over half of adults have no estate planning documents at all – 56% of them, to be precise. This is not news to those in the know. Americans have been slow to make their estate plans for years.

Do they just not care?

It’s not that Americans don’t care about estate planning. Some 73% of those surveyed said making one is important to them. So what is stopping them from putting one in place? At the top of the list of reasons those surveyed for the report gave was that they had not gotten around to it. The next most common reasons people gave were:

• They didn’t think they owned enough to need one.
• They didn’t know how to.
• They believed it would be too expensive.
• They didn’t have anyone to leave assets to.
• They thought it would take too long or be too complicated.

The reasons given aren’t as valid as those who gave them might believe. For example, an estate plan covers many other important things aside from your assets, so not owning much is no reason not to create a plan. And while there will be a price, the cost of not having one in place could be much higher.

As for not knowing where to start or believing it will be too complicated, there is an easy solution to that. You can seek experienced legal guidance to help you do it.