New York Estate Planning & Elder Law Blog
SOME PLANNING IS BETTER THAN NO PLANNING
In 2014 Pew charitable trust published a study that showed that fewer Americans are entering into marriage in the first place, fewer than ever before. Currently the number of people over the age of 25 who were never married is at approximately 20%. In terms of raw numbers, 42 million Americans have never been married. The percentage of Americans over the age of 25 married reached a peak in about 1960, with approximately nine percent of Americans never married. Part and parcel of the same trend is the number of adults who never had children. Given the fact that it is entirely biologically possible that men could have children but never know it, but for all intents and purposes impossible for the same to be true of women, the statistics only track women who never had a child. The number of women who never had a child peaked at about 2006 at about 20% of the population.
The number is, as of 2015 currently at 15%. So many cultural mores have changed in the last two generations that the pace is historically unprecedented. The law in America has generally always been responsive to social changes, even if it is too slow for some. Compared to some nations, American law is downright revolutionary in how progressive it can be. At the same time, estate planning for the never married does not need new doctrines or a change in the law. Instead it requires an experienced and forward thinking estate planning attorney to properly document the wishes of the client and to put them into effect through the choice of certain financial tools, trusts or other planning. Some planning, even if imperfect is better than no planning.