Maurie Backman, The Motley FoolPublished 9:03 a.m. ET Feb. 21, 2017 | Updated 24 hours ago
We all want to save money for retirement, but these 5 costs that retirees face might shock you. USA TODAY NETWORK
Do you have a will or trust in place? Your loved ones could face a world of upheaval without one.
When most of us start planning for retirement, we think about things like what our living costs will be and how much money we’ll have access to. Many of us, in fact, get so focused on how much we are or aren’t saving that we fail to make one critical move: creating a will or living trust.
In a recent Caring.com study, 58% of American adults admitted to not having either type of crucial document in place. Even scarier, among adults with children under the age of 18, that figure climbed to 64% of folks without a formal estate plan.
Now the good news is that older Americans are more likely to have a will or trust than their younger counterparts. Here’s how the data breaks down:
AGE GROUP 18 TO 36 PERCENTAGE OF PEOPLE WITH A WILL OR TRUST 22%
37 to 52 36%
53 to 71 60%
72 and older 81%
Data source: Caring.com.
Though it’s not surprising to see that almost 80% of younger Americans don’t have a will, it’s an attitude that can hurt Millennials as easily as it can folks 20 or 30 years their senior. And while you might think you have plenty of time to draw up a will, or that not having one isn’t such a big deal, it’s a mistake that could be far costlier than you might imagine.