Stop Calling It Estate Planning

Oct 25

The Word Problem

Ask a seventy-year-old whether she has done her estate planning and watch her face. You can see her translate the question in real time: when I die, and if I have money. Most people believe neither event is on this year's calendar, so the conversation ends.

The data backs up what we see in living rooms. In Trust & Will's 2026 national survey, the most common reason people gave for having no will or trust was "I don't think I have enough assets," cited by 27% overall and 35% of Baby Boomers. The only barrier that grew from the year before was "not relevant for people like me."¹ In Caring.com's 2025 study, nearly a quarter of respondents said nothing could motivate them to plan.²

I think the name is doing a lot of that damage. We took the most useful planning a person can do for the last third of life and labeled it with a word for the dead and the wealthy.

Words Change What People Do

If this sounds like marketing fuss, look at the research. Russell James at Texas Tech tested how wording affects interest in charitable gifts through a will, with nearly 10,000 American adults. Asking about "a gift to charity in your will" drew significantly more interest than the word "bequest." Phrases that mentioned death outright, such as "that will take effect at my death," reduced interest.³ In a second study of 4,592 people, the story of a man who "signed his will today" outperformed the same story told about him after he had died, narrowing the gap between people's everyday giving and their willingness to plan a gift by 60%.⁴

Health planning shows the same pattern. In a study of the Death over Dinner program, people who avoided the subject of death had more reservations about advance care planning, and framing the conversation around how people want to live lowered them.⁵ Talk about death and people pull back. Talk about life and they lean in.

Meanwhile, the profession keeps leading with the ending, and fewer people walk through the door. Boston College researchers found the share of households over 50 with a will fell from 60% to 44% across the Health and Retirement Study.⁶

What Actually Gets People Moving

People who did plan rarely cite death as the reason. Peace of mind comes first, at 39%, followed by protecting loved ones at 32%.¹ Among people without a plan, the thing most likely to change their minds is a medical diagnosis or health scare.²

So people wait for a crisis to make the need feel real. That is the worst possible timing. Economists studying financial mistakes across the life cycle found that decision-making peaks around age 53 and declines from there.⁷ Scammers know it too: Americans 60 and older reported losing $7.7 billion to fraud in 2025, according to the FBI.⁸

The benefits that matter most to an older adult arrive while they are very much alive. Someone authorized to pay the bills during a rough month in the hospital. A doctor who knows who can speak for you. An extra set of eyes on the accounts. Help arranged on your terms, before anyone has to arrange it for you. None of that comes to mind when you hear the word estate.

Call It What It Is

"Estate planning" describes the work from the professional's side: the documents, the transfer, the tax return. It names the endpoint of the file and says nothing about the twenty or thirty years the client still has to live.

I call it aging readiness: organizing the practical and administrative side of life so you stay in control and independent for as long as possible, and the people you love never have to become detectives. It covers four parts of a life:

Your people: who matters and who can step in, from family and trusted friends to advisors, health care agents and fiduciaries.
Your affairs: legal documents, finances, insurance, health records, property and digital accounts, current and findable.
Your well-being: the health, home, routines and connections that keep you living well and on your own.
Your decisions: your wishes and priorities, and who decides what if you need support.

The will and trust live inside "your affairs." They are essential, and they are one piece. Most of us have some of this organized. Very few of us have all of it. The estate plan answers what happens after you are gone. Aging readiness answers what happens on a Tuesday when you are not feeling well.

Three objections come up every time I make this case.

"It's just a new label." James's studies say otherwise. Changing a few words measurably changed what people intended to do. Labels decide whether someone keeps listening.

"Attorneys won't like it." The legal work stays exactly the same. What changes is when clients walk in, and in what frame of mind: a decade earlier, curious instead of grim, while they can still make every decision themselves.

"Nobody wants to hear the word aging." Aging is happening either way. Readiness is the part you control. People who plan this way have less to manage, keep more decisions in their own hands, stay independent longer, and get to stop worrying. That is a better offer than a binder for your heirs.

The Questions Worth Asking

When someone asks whether your estate plan is done, what do you picture: your funeral, or next year?
Which of your documents helps you this year, while you are alive and well?
If you spent a month in the hospital, who could legally pay your bills, talk to your doctors and handle your mail?
You probably have some of your life organized. Do you have all of it?
For professionals: does your first meeting open with a focus on the client's death, or with a focus on ensuring peace of mind during the client's life?

We will keep losing people to the word estate until we stop using it as the front door. Call it what it is: getting ready for the rest of your life, on your terms.

Notes

Trust & Will, 2026 Estate Planning Report (survey of 5,000 U.S. adults, Jan.–Feb. 2026).
Caring.com, 2025 Wills and Estate Planning Study.
Russell James, "Phrasing the Charitable Bequest Inquiry," Voluntas (2015); summarized by Third Sector.
Russell James, "Encouraging Charitable Bequests: A Test of Message Effectiveness" (working paper); reported by the Chronicle of Philanthropy, July 2015.
Mroz, Bluck & Smith, "Young Adults' Perspectives on Advance Care Planning: Evaluating the Death over Dinner Initiative," Death Studies (2020); PDF.
Alicia H. Munnell, "Do People Plan to Leave Bequests? Do They Have Wills?", Center for Retirement Research at Boston College (2021), using Health and Retirement Study data.
Agarwal, Driscoll, Gabaix & Laibson, "The Age of Reason: Financial Decisions over the Life Cycle and Implications for Regulation," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity (2009).
FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center 2025 report, as reported by AARP, April 2026.