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Most people put off signing a will for complex and personal reasons. If you don’t have a will, or haven’t kept the one you have up to date, you might be ready after you read this.

Many people fail to complete or maintain their estate plans because they are not thinking about the future, lack the time, fear loss of control, fear mortality, or must make difficult decisions. However, step one in getting past any natural hesitancy you may have in engaging in estate planning is allowing yourself to face how disastrous your failure to address these matters might be for the people you love. Those downsides could include family discord, forced sale of assets to pay estate tax, greater transaction costs, delay in transfer of assets to heirs, or even state intestacy statutes.

So how do you get over your hesitancy? We have a few tips:

• Know that it is normal to be reluctant about an estate plan. According to a 2021 Gallup poll, less than half—only about 46%— of U.S. adults have a will; this polling result has not varied significantly over the past 30 years.

• Imagine the future. Allow yourself to envision what would happen to your family, friends, and charities if something should happen to you. What do you want your wealth to do for them after you are gone? Be specific. Focus on how happy you will feel knowing you’ve provided for your family’s future in an organized and thoughtful way.

• Prioritize. We often give better advice to others than we do to ourselves. Perhaps more importantly, we can be kinder to others than we are to ourselves. So imagine your best friend came to you and said, “My advisor thinks I should make an estate plan, but I think I should just deal with my current challenges.” What would you say?

• Take control of the future. Realize that estate planning is a process. An estate plan memorializes your decisions about what you want to happen to your wealth and how you want to provide for your loved ones after you pass. Who will control the wealth? Who will enjoy it? And remember, as long as you are alive and competent, you can change your estate plan at any time.

Rick Barragan is the Managing Director, Los Angeles Market Manager, for J.P. Morgan Private Bank. r.barragan@jpmorgan.com | (310) 860-3658 privatebank.jpmorgan.com/los-angeles

Source: J.P. Morgan Private Bank Insights, May 16, 2023. “Here’s why you still don’t have a will – or haven’t kept the one you do have up to date” By Jeff Kreisler, Head of Behavioral Science for J.P. Morgan Private Bank and Sally Venverloh, Managing Director, Wealth Advisor, J.P. Morgan Private Bank

According to a 2021 Gallup poll, less than half of U.S. adults have a will.