Linda was 61 years old, sharp as ever, and by every measure a responsible adult. She had a retirement account, a paid-off home, two grown children she adored, and a small business she had run for over two decades. She had thought about getting a will more than once. She had even Googled estate planning attorneys a few times, bookmarked a couple of websites, and told herself she would get to it after the busy season settled down.
Then she had a stroke.
She survived, thankfully. But in the weeks that followed, as her family scrambled to understand her wishes, her finances, and who was authorized to make decisions on her behalf, the absence of even the most basic estate planning documents created a painful, costly, and completely avoidable crisis.
Linda’s story is not unusual. In fact, it plays out every single day across the country, in families just like yours.
The Gap Is Bigger Than You Think
In 2025, Trust & Will conducted the largest estate planning survey ever undertaken in the United States, surveying 10,000 adults across all demographics, income levels, and regions. What they found was not a knowledge problem. It was an execution problem.
83% of Americans say estate planning is important. Yet only 31% have a will, and 55% have no estate planning documents of any kind. That space between knowing and doing is what we call the execution gap, and it is wider than it has ever been.
The numbers become even more sobering when you look at who is falling through it:
• Only 24% of Americans have a current will, down from 33% in 2022.
• 36% of parents with minor children have a will, leaving most families with no named guardian if the unthinkable happens.
• 43% of Americans without a will say the reason is simple: they just have not gotten around to it.
• Among high earners making over $150,000 per year, 44% cite procrastination as their top barrier, making them 83% more likely to delay than lower-income households.
• Adults with master’s or doctoral degrees are the most likely of any group to procrastinate, with 49% citing inaction as their reason.
The people most capable of getting this done are the ones most likely to put it off. The execution gap does not discriminate.
Why the Gap Exists
Understanding the execution gap is straightforward. Closing it requires knowing what keeps it open.
There Is No Deadline
Estate planning has no filing date, no renewal notice, and no penalty for waiting. Unlike taxes or insurance, nothing forces the issue until a crisis does. That open-ended quality makes it uniquely easy to defer, and uniquely dangerous when life does not wait for a convenient time.
People Think It Is Not for Them
Nearly one-third of Americans believe they do not have enough assets to need a plan. This is one of the most persistent and costly misconceptions in the field. Estate planning is not about the size of your estate. It is about who raises your children, who manages your finances if you cannot, and who makes medical decisions on your behalf. Those questions apply to everyone.
The Subject Is Uncomfortable
Sitting down to create an estate plan means acknowledging your own mortality in a concrete way. Most people find that genuinely uncomfortable and choose to look away. It is a deeply human response, and it is one that regularly leaves families unprepared.
What It Costs to Wait
The execution gap is not just a personal inconvenience. It is a burden transferred directly to the people you care about most, at the worst possible time.
When someone dies without a will or trust, their estate enters a court process called intestate succession. A judge, not the person who built that estate, applies state law to decide who receives the assets, who manages the affairs, and who raises the children. The process is public, slow, expensive, and almost never reflects what the person would have actually wanted.
Incapacity carries the same risks. Without a durable power of attorney and healthcare directive in place, family members may have no legal authority to act, forcing them into a separate court process to be appointed as guardians at exactly the moment their time and energies should be focused on care.
The families most hurt by the execution gap are not the ones with complicated finances. They are ordinary families who simply never found the time, until time found them.
Closing the Gap: Your Estate Planning Checklist
Closing the execution gap does not require a complicated process. At minimum it requires three foundational documents and a conversation with the right attorney. Here is where to start.
Financial Power of Attorney
Authorizes a trusted person to manage your financial affairs if you become incapacitated. Without it, your family may have no legal standing to act on your behalf, even in an emergency.
Advance Medical Directive
Names a specific person to make medical decisions on your behalf and documents your wishes for medical treatment if you cannot speak for yourself, removing an impossible burden from your family at an already difficult time.
Last Will and Testament
Directs how your assets are distributed and names a guardian for any minor children. Without one, the court decides both.
Optional: A Living Trust
For business owners, blended families, or anyone with more complex circumstances or substantial wealth, a living trust may also be worth considering. It keeps your estate out of probate, maintains privacy, and provides continuity of management in ways a will alone cannot. Living Trusts – both revocable or irrevocable – allow you to control, manage and protect your assets while permitting changes to be made as your circumstances evolve. An experienced estate planning attorney can help you determine whether one or more trusts make sense for your situation.
A Final Thought
The execution gap exists because estate planning is easy to intend and easy to delay. But the data is clear, and Linda’s story is not rare. The families who fare best when a crisis arrives are not the wealthiest or the most prepared in any complicated sense. They are the ones whose loved ones took a few hours, made a plan, and left clarity behind instead of chaos.
At Stouffer Legal, we work with families every day who wish they had acted sooner, and with other families who are grateful their loved ones did not procrastinate. If you have been meaning to close the gap, this is a good moment to start.
For more information on where to start - view our workshop by clicking below.
