Yesterday the Wall Street Journal published an interesting article on the rise of childless estates.
According to recent data from the Pew Research Center, 20% of Americans aged 50+ have no children.
Additionally, AARP conducted a survey which showed 50% of childless adults have no estate plan. (The same survey found that 57% of people with children have a last will and testament.)
The growing number of childless decedents without estate plans has resulted in many Americans receiving unanticipated inheritances through statutorily prescribed distributions.
There’s even a name for these lucky people: “laughing heirs”:
An heir distant enough to feel no grief when a relative dies and leaves an inheritance (generally viewed as a windfall) to the heir.
Black’s Law Dictionary
The WSJ also cited a Yale Law study of 9,000 respondents who were asked about their estate plans. Unsurprisingly, the study found that people without children were more likely to choose charities as their beneficiaries.