Deterrents to Estate Planning

The Huffington Post recently published an article that tackles the question of why so few people engage in estate planning (58%-64% of Americans have not engaged in any form of estate planning at all).Top on the list of deterrents is the forced realization of immortality.  An excerpt from the article is below:

The resistance to the process is as logistical as it is ontological, because estate planning is linked to the unpleasant task of death planning, and who wants to think about that? But when children come into the picture parents often enter the Kingdom of Anxiety, and concerns about what we leave behind are harder to sweep under the carpet.

What prompted me in this department was learning that in the absence of a trust, lawyers and the state — i.e., decisions of a probate court — might determine not only where my assets will go but who will care for my children. No thank you. We’re all familiar with the famous Woody Allen quote, “I’m not afraid of death. I just don’t want to be there when it happens.” Well, we may or may not be “there” when it happens (because we’re already gone, right?) but other people continue on in our absence, and those people aren’t necessarily our friends.

On a rudimentary level, one problem with estate planning is the word “estate” itself, which is a misnomer. It suggests ownership of a giant stock portfolio and a lovely mansion — two things most mere mortals, including yours truly, don’t have. But even people with no assets and few possessions would rather dance on hot coals than tie up the myriad details of life in anticipation of death. This not only involves significant emotional complexities, but also dealing with insurance companies, banks and assorted bureaucracies.

See Debra Ollivier, Estate Planning And Other Existential Agitations, The Huffington Post, Jan. 5, 2012.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.)) for bringing this article to my attention.