New York Estate Planning & Elder Law Blog
As the country enters a third year of living in a pandemic, estate planning is seeing an increase in millennials who are surpassing the baby boomer generation as the generation who performs the most caregiving for both children and aging parents.
Millennials are creating their own families, while simultaneously caring for their aging parents during a pandemic. This, in turn, is leading more caregivers to plan for the future. Even though millennials are taking responsibility for writing wills and creating trusts to establish families’ financial status, most adults in the United States lack an estate plan. Hopefully, by making digital estate planning as easy as possible, more people will create estate plans that achieve their wishes.
Key Findings from the Study
A 2022 study addressing estate planning trends among the millennial population reveals some important findings, which include:
- Around a third of the people polled revealed that becoming a parent-led to them creating an estate plan
- Approximately a fourth of millennials are part of the “sandwich” generation, which means that the person is tasked with caring for their children as well as their parent or parents
- Slightly less than 80% of pet owners appointed a specific guardian of their pet in their estate plan
- Slightly less than 60% of people are only interested in receiving end-of-life care if they discover the benefits of this care outweigh the burden
- Around 80% of people are interested in donating their organs
- The study also revealed that three-fourths of millennials decided to complete an estate plan including a will because it let them appoint a guardian of their child or children as well as any pets and make choices about healthcare and final arrangements.
- Approximately 20% of the people who responded chose to utilize a trust in their estate plan because it helps address more complex estate issues.
Reasons Why Millennials Create Estate Plans
The study considered the most common reasons why millennials establish estate plans. Similar to 2021’s study, having a child as well as the death of a family member and purchasing a home are some of the most common reasons why people engage in estate planning.
The pandemic, as well as work-from-home policies, led an increased number of families throughout the country to adopt pets.
Millennials Are Utilizing Non-Traditional Trends
The data from the study also shows that millennials are stepping away from traditional family standards. For example, the study reveals that millennials are creating modern legacies. Millennials list approximately seven individuals in their estate plan and this circle often does not include only blood relatives. One in four people surveyed reports that they selected a non-family member as guardian for their kids or pets to perform as a beneficiary, executor, or trustee.
Additionally, the study reveals that almost 50% of the people polled finished their health documents including HIPPA Authorization forms and that more than half of the people polled chose to receive care only if the benefits were greater than the burden. As far as end-of-life preferences are concerned, almost half of the people polled selected to have their body cremated while only one in four people who responded chose conventional burials.