Recognizing that you should have an estate plan in place that includes an incapacity component is something that most people understand, even as relatively young adults. Procrastination is the problem. Statistics reveal that many young Americans have failed to do estate and incapacity planning, and that lack of preparation is placing their families at risk.
According to a Harris interactive survey that was conducted late in 2009, only 24% of Americans who are under the age of 35 have any type of estate plan in place. Though the possibility of passing away obviously becomes more likely as you get older, tens of thousands of people who are under the age of 35 die every year, and a significant percentage of them have spouses and children that they are leaving behind.
The Harris survey revealed that older Americans are surprisingly unprepared as well. Nearly one out of every four individuals who participated in the survey who were over the age of 55 were without an estate plan.
If you are going through life without making any preparations for the future, you would do well to ask yourself where your family would be if you were to die unexpectedly. When you read about accidents and catastrophic illnesses taking lives, those lives are not just numbers; they were living, breathing human beings just like you, and they had families just like you.
Should you be passionate about providing for your family, procrastination is not an option. Now is the time to take action and get essential estate planning documents in place with the assistance of a licensed and experienced San Jose area estate planning attorney.
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