Three Out of Four American Adults Don't Have a Will. The Reasons Are Worse Than You'd Think.

Relative Ease News · October 12, 2026

Ask a room of adults whether having a will matters and most hands go up. Ask how many actually have one and the room gets quiet. That's the consistent finding of the largest recurring survey on the subject — and the numbers have slid the wrong way for three years.

Caring.com, which has run a national wills survey annually since 2015, partnered with YouGov for its 2025 edition, polling more than 2,500 American adults. Only 24% said they have a will. Another 13% reported a living trust, and 4% had other estate planning documents. Will ownership has fallen steadily from 33% in 2022. More than half of respondents have no will at all — and that includes most parents of minor children.

The real reason isn't fear. It's the to-do list.

When people imagine why their neighbors haven't made a will, they tend to picture denial about death. The survey tells a duller story. Since 2022, the most common reason has been procrastination: 43% of respondents without a will said they "just haven't gotten around to it." The two biggest reasons overall, covering 56% of those without a will or trust, were that it's low on the priority list and that they don't believe they have enough assets to bother.

Both reasons deserve a harder look.

Start with "I don't own enough." A will isn't primarily a document about wealth distribution. For a parent, its most important job is naming a guardian for minor children. For a homeowner — even one whose equity is modest — it directs the single largest asset most families will ever hold. For almost anyone, it decides who can legally act: close accounts, deal with insurers, sell a car, settle debts. "Not enough assets" usually means "not enough to feel like an estate," which is a different thing entirely. The state doesn't see it that way. Intestacy law doesn't skip small estates; it processes them with the same machinery, just without your instructions.

Then there's procrastination, which looks less like laziness than not knowing where to start. Among respondents without a will, 20% had at least talked with a loved one about their wishes, and 16% had begun researching online — then apparently stopped. The intent is there. The funnel is broken.

The generational picture has a twist

You'd expect will ownership to climb neatly with age, and broadly it does: respondents over 55 were the most likely to have plans in place, with retirement and age milestones the top stated reason for finally making one. But the group with the least coverage is not the youngest. Adults 35 to 54 — the sandwich generation, often caring for kids and aging parents at once — were the largest cohort without estate documents. The 18-to-34 group actually showed more participation than the cohort right above them. Meanwhile, the trigger most likely to move the unplanned isn't a milestone birthday. A medical diagnosis or health concern was the largest motivator named, cited by 37% of those without documents. People don't plan when life is calm. They plan in a hospital's orbit, in a hurry, at the worst possible time.

What "no will" actually means

Dying without a will is called dying intestate, and every state has an intestacy statute — a default family tree drawn by law. The details vary by state, but the shape is consistent: a surviving spouse and children inherit in set shares, then parents, then siblings, then more distant relatives. Whoever the formula picks is who gets your property, whether or not that's who you would have picked.

The gaps in the formula are where families get hurt. An unmarried partner is not on the chart at all, no matter how many years or how many mortgage payments you shared. A close friend, a stepchild you raised but never adopted, a charity you supported for decades — none of them inherit under a default statute. And if you have minor children and no will naming a guardian, a court chooses who raises them. Your family can make its case to a judge. So can everyone else.

There's also cost, where the assumption runs backwards. People picture open-ended legal bills. In practice, an attorney-drafted simple will typically runs a flat few hundred dollars — cost guides put the common range around $300 to $1,000 or more depending on complexity — and online will services range from free to about $200. Probate without a will is where estates actually bleed time and money.

The one-hour version

If you're in the 43%, here is the smallest honest version of getting started. Twenty minutes: write down your accounts, policies, debts, and property — a raw inventory, not a legal document. Fifteen minutes: decide on the three names that matter — guardian for your kids, executor for your estate, agent for medical and financial decisions. Fifteen minutes: check the beneficiary designations on your retirement accounts and insurance, because those pass outside your will and often contradict it. Ten minutes: book the appointment or open the online service while the decisions are fresh.

The survey's most quietly hopeful number is this: the majority of people who do have wills updated them within the last five years. Getting a plan is the hard part. Keeping it current, it turns out, people manage. Start with the hour.

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