It’s true that most people haven’t written a will or done anything else to create an estate plan. One reason for this is that many people just think that they’re too young at the moment, so they’re waiting until they get older—perhaps until they retire from their career—to make a plan.
But is it true that you can be too young for an estate plan? It’s really not. You do generally have to be a legal adult, so you’ll need to be 18 years old. But beyond that, you can’t be too young, and there are always potential benefits.
You can make updates
For one thing, people sometimes think they need to wait to make an estate plan because their wealth is going to change as they get older. That may be true, but you can still make a plan at a young age and then just update it periodically whenever there are shifts in wealth, assets, family dynamics, health conditions or anything else.
Planning with a minor child
Another thing to remember is that even young parents need to start thinking about the next generation. If someone has a child at 21, they may still think that they are over 50 years from passing away. But if they pass away unexpectedly, it can be helpful if they have an estate plan establishing a guardianship for their young child and putting assets into a trust to hold until that child turns 18.
Creating your plan today
As you can see, you’re never too young to start thinking about the future. You may not know exactly what that future holds, but you can still create an estate plan today. Just make sure you know exactly what legal steps you’ll need to take while doing so.
