The most common reason people give for not having an estate plan is that they just haven’t gotten around to it. The second most common sounds like this: they don’t think they’re the right kind of person yet.
Not old enough. Not wealthy enough. Not at the right stage of life.
It sounds reasonable. It is also one of the costliest assumptions in estate planning.
The Assumption Most People Make
When most people picture someone with an estate plan, they picture an older adult with significant assets deciding how to distribute a house, an investment portfolio, and savings to their children. That picture is not wrong. It is just incomplete.
Estate planning is not primarily about distributing wealth. It is about making decisions in advance so that the people you care about don’t have to make them for you, in a moment when no one is prepared for it.
That applies at 28. It applies at 45. It applies whether you rent an apartment or own a home, whether your bank account has $800 or $800,000.
Wealth Has Less to Do with It Than You Think
The documents that make up an estate plan are not triggered by a minimum account balance. They are triggered by the reality that life is unpredictable.
Wills determine what happens to your belongings, no matter how modest. Without one, California’s intestacy laws decide for you. The state follows a fixed formula based on family relationships, and that formula does not account for who you actually wanted to receive what. A will also names a guardian for your minor children, and that has nothing to do with assets.
Beneficiary designations on retirement accounts, life insurance policies, and bank accounts pass those assets directly to the people you name, outside of probate. These designations matter just as much for a $15,000 IRA as they do for a $1.5 million portfolio.
Age Has Less to Do with It Than You Think
Young adults may actually be most at risk of having no plans at all. According to the 2026 Trust & Will Estate Planning Report, 54% of Gen Z and 58% of Millennials have no estate planning documents.
That is a problem, because several of the most important documents in an estate plan have nothing to do with death.
A healthcare directive tells doctors and hospitals what kind of treatment you want if you cannot speak for yourself. A durable power of attorney designates someone to handle your finances if you become incapacitated. Without these documents, even a close family member may not have the legal authority to step in. A court decides who does.
These are not edge-case scenarios. Accidents, serious illnesses, and unexpected medical events happen to people of every age. An estate plan made at 30 can be updated as life changes. One that doesn’t exist yet cannot.
What Every Adult Actually Needs
Most people are better served by starting with the basics than waiting until their situation feels complicated enough to justify it.
For most adults, a solid starting point includes:
- A will that names who receives your belongings and, if you have children, who will care for them
- A durable power of attorney for finances
- An advance healthcare directive
- Updated beneficiary designations on all accounts and policies
None of those require a large estate. They require a little time and a conversation with an attorney who can make sure the documents hold up when they are actually needed and identify any gaps you might not have noticed on your own.
You Don’t Have to Wait Until You’re “Ready”
The belief that estate planning is something you’ll get to once you’re older or more financially established tends to push that starting line further away every year. Most people who have a plan in place say they wish they had done it sooner.
If you have been putting it off because it didn’t seem necessary yet, the team at Lowthorp Law Firm is here to help. Contact us to schedule a consultation and find out what a plan for your specific situation actually looks like.
In the next post in this series, we tackle another reason people delay not knowing where to start. The process is more straightforward than most people expect.