What Happens If You Die Without a Will? Depends on Where You Live.
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Here's your money briefing for Monday, May 8th. I'm J.R. Whelan for The Wall Street Journal. The wealth of American households has tripled over the past three decades, yet many people have put off drawing up a will, leaving the future of their assets and belongings out of their hands when they die.
A range of state laws would dictate who gets your assets. Your loved ones could get nothing. They might get kicked out of the family house. They could face hefty surprise tax bills. It could really be a mess.
We'll talk to Wall Street Journal personal finance reporter Ashley Ebling about what to know when drawing up a will after the break.
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Most Americans don't have a will, and upon their death, that could put the future of their belongings and assets at risk and result in devastating consequences for their heirs. Wall Street Journal personal finance reporter Ashley Ebling is here.
How does the episode frame the problem of Americans dying without wills?
So first of all, Ashley, what is a will and what is its purpose?
Well, I can't overemphasize the importance of having a will. It's a catch-all document. It determines who gets your stuff, but would also determine who would be the guardian of minor children and who basically handles everything at your death. That would be called an executor if you have a will or administrator if you end up not having a will.
What kinds of assets does a will typically cover?
Everything, basically your house, your bank accounts, all your belongings, your car. It won't cover retirement accounts and life insurance policies. Those pass by way of beneficiary designation. So it's really important that you coordinate all your estate planning in one place.
So what happens if someone dies and doesn't have a will filled out?
A range of state laws would dictate who gets your assets. Your loved ones could get nothing. They might get kicked out of the family house. They could face hefty surprise tax bills. It could really be a mess.
And yet in your reporting, you cite data that says not only that the wealth of American households has tripled over the past 30 years, but also that more than half of Americans in 2021 said they didn't have a will. Given the fact that all these terrible things could happen, why don't they have a will?
Well, it's not just lack of awareness. It's just really, really tough. Schwab did a recent survey that showed for people with a million plus in investable assets, one out of five of them even don't have wills. So it's at all income ranges and asset levels. It's a tough decision, especially complex if they're complex family dynamics at stake.
There's a really interesting chart in your Wall Street Journal story which shows how this issue of having a will and not having a will sort of runs along demographic lines. What does it tell us?
So that tells us that among non-white adults, it's a bigger problem. There's 72% of non-white adults who say they don't have a will compared to 45% of white adults. I guess some good news is as people age, they tend to get their estate planning documents together.
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