Family Trees Becoming Beanpoles

Recent studies show that family trees are going to extend as the average life span increases.  See Stephanie Rosenbloom, Here Come the Great-Grandparents, NY Times, Nov. 2, 2006:

There have always been great-grandparents. But because Americans are living longer and are healthier now than in previous generations, demographers say more people are likely to have at least one living great-grandparent, and to have that great-grandparent in their lives longer.

Kenneth W. Wachter, the chairman of the department of demography at the University of California, Berkeley, has estimated that by 2030, more than 70 percent of 8-year-olds will likely have a living great-grandparent. It is a phenomenon that Kevin Kinsella, the head of the Aging Studies branch of the United States Census Bureau, has referred to as a great-grandparent boom. * * *

American family trees today often resemble a beanpole: thin (because there are fewer children in each generation) and long (because there are more living generations).

This additional “length” of the living family tree is likely to impact dispostive wishes and hence estate planning generally.