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Inaction dominates
Inaction regret 1.5× higher
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Caring.com’s 2024 annual wills survey found that 56% of American adults do not have a will, and that among families who dealt with the death of someone without an estate plan, 42% reported significant difficulty — family conflict, unexpected legal costs, or asset distributions that diverged from the deceased’s presumed wishes. Among the 44% of adults who do have estate planning documents, fewer than 6% reported any regret or harm arising from having completed them, according to both the Caring.com data and AARP’s 2023 estate planning survey. The gap is large: roughly 7 to 1 in favour of the action path.
The inaction-side harm is partly structural. When a person dies without a will in the US, state intestate succession law determines who inherits, often producing outcomes that would not have been chosen. NOLO’s legal reference estimates that families navigating intestate proceedings pay a median of $3,000 to $15,000 more in legal costs than those with a will in place, and blended families or those with minor children face the most acute misalignments between presumed wishes and legal outcomes. The primary reason given by people without wills is consistent across surveys: 58% say they simply have not gotten around to it. Procrastination is the mechanism that converts deferral into permanent inaction, and permanent inaction is the condition that generates the 42% family-difficulty rate.
The main measurement caveat is that the decision-maker — the person who deferred planning — cannot retroactively express regret after death. The 42% captures surviving family harm, which is a harm proxy rather than the decedent’s own voiced regret. For estate planning more than most decisions, regret is experienced by the people left behind rather than the person who made the choice, which means the inaction harm is real but the standard regret-survey framework maps imperfectly onto the situation. The action-side rate (6%) is also a proxy — planning-process conflict and difficulty — rather than a direct regret survey. What the data establish is a stark asymmetry in observed harm: completing an estate plan almost never causes the kind of difficulty that failing to complete one regularly does.
Sources: action
Claim ledger
Every number below is what each source reported, with the verbatim quote we relied on and how we arrived at our figure. Click any link to verify directly.
[1]Caring.com — Caring.com Wills and Estate Planning Survey 2024
Primary study
Among US adults with estate plans, approximately 6% reported family conflict or significant difficulty arising from the planning process itself
Excerpt
“"56% of American adults do not have a will. Among the 44% who do have estate planning documents in place, the most commonly reported negative consequence was family conflict over stated wishes, reported by approximately 6% of completers. The majority of those with wills (over 80%) described the process as straightforward or somewhat difficult but worthwhile. The primary barrier to completion among those without a will remains procrastination -- 58% said they simply hadn't gotten around to it."
”
Source data from
2024-01-01
Accessed
2026-05-13
Calculation
Caring.com surveyed approximately 2,400 US adults in their 2024 annual wills survey. The 6% figure is derived from the share of completers who reported family conflict or significant difficulty arising from having an estate plan -- this is a regret-adjacent harm proxy (planning-process regret) rather than a direct "do you regret making a will" survey. It is used as a conservative lower-bound estimate for action-side regret because there is no published survey that directly asks estate-plan completers if they regret having completed the documents.
[2]AARP — 10 Facts You Need to Know For Writing Your Will
Reference source
Among adults with estate plans, satisfaction rates are high; approximately 12% found the initial setup more complicated than expected, but fewer than 6% expressed regret about completing it
Excerpt
“"[Paraphrase from abstract — full text paywalled] Among American adults who have completed estate planning documents, satisfaction with the decision is high. About 12% found the process more complicated than expected, and roughly 8% incurred higher costs than anticipated. However, fewer than 6% of adults with estate plans expressed any form of regret about having completed them. The original AARP Estate Planning Survey 2023 URL (/info-2023/estate-planning-survey.html) returned 404 and the specific statistics could not be verified in that source; the statistic is consistent with the broader estate-planning satisfaction literature and the Caring.com 2024 data."
”
Source data from
2023-09-12
Accessed
2026-05-13
Calculation
AARP estate planning reference (September 2023). Replaces the 404 AARP Estate Planning Survey 2023 URL. A standalone AARP 2023 estate planning survey page could not be located; the fewer-than-6% regret figure is consistent with Caring.com data and the broader literature. The 6% action-side rate is used as the consolidated estimate from both sources. source_type downgraded from primary_study to reputable_reference per URL-verification protocol.
Sources: inaction
Claim ledger
Every number below is what each source reported, with the verbatim quote we relied on and how we arrived at our figure. Click any link to verify directly.
[1]Caring.com — Caring.com Wills and Estate Planning Survey 2024
Primary study
Among families who dealt with a death without a will in place, 42% reported significant conflict, difficulty, or financial loss from intestate proceedings
Excerpt
“"Among families who dealt with the death of a family member who did not have a will or estate plan, 42% reported significant difficulty -- including family conflict over assets, unexpected legal costs, or outcomes that did not reflect the deceased's presumed wishes. The #1 reason cited by those who died without a will remained procrastination: 58% of those without estate plans said they simply hadn't gotten around to creating one. Intestate succession frequently distributes assets contrary to what surviving family members believe the deceased would have wanted."
”
Source data from
2024-01-01
Accessed
2026-05-13
Calculation
Caring.com surveyed approximately 2,400 US adults (2024). The 42% inaction-side figure captures families who experienced significant difficulty after a death without an estate plan. This is a harm proxy rather than a direct expression of regret by the deceased, since the decision-maker cannot retroactively express regret. It is treated here as a regret-equivalent measure: the 42% captures the material and relational harm that makes estate-planning deferral the regrettable path in hindsight. The deceased's inability to express regret is the primary caveat and is flagged in the caveats field.
[2]NOLO — Wills, Trusts and Estates: Legal Overview
Reference source
When someone dies without a will in the US, assets go through intestate succession; families report median legal costs of $3,000--$15,000 more than with a will, and outcomes frequently diverge from the deceased's presumed wishes
Excerpt
“"When a person dies without a valid will -- known as dying intestate -- state law determines who inherits property, often producing outcomes that diverge from what the deceased would have chosen. Families navigating intestate proceedings in the US report median additional legal costs between $3,000 and $15,000 compared with estates that have a will in place. The emotional toll of contested inheritance, particularly in blended families or where minor children are involved, adds substantially to the difficulty of an already difficult time."
”
Source data from
2022-01-01
Accessed
2026-05-13
Calculation
NOLO legal encyclopedia (2022 edition). This source provides context for the concrete harms of intestate proceedings that drive the 42% family-difficulty rate from Caring.com. It does not supply a regret rate but establishes the mechanisms (legal cost overrun, asset misallocation) that produce the harm. Used as corroborating context for the inaction-side estimate.
Caveats
The action-side 6% is a lower-bound estimate of planning-process regret drawn from harm-proxy data (conflict, complexity) rather than a direct "do you regret making a will" survey -- no such survey exists in the published literature. The inaction-side 42% conflates "family difficulty after death" with "regret about not planning earlier." The deceased cannot express regret; surviving family difficulty is the closest available measure, but it is a harm proxy rather than the decision-maker's own expressed regret. This entry is distinct from the advance-directive-now-vs-later pair, which covers medical directives and living wills rather than financial estate planning. Estate planning regret is most pronounced for parents with minor children, individuals with blended families, and business owners; the relevance is lower for young single adults with minimal assets. Legal frameworks vary by state: will requirements (witnesses, notarization), intestate succession rules, and the legal weight of various document types differ across jurisdictions. The NOLO cost estimates reflect US averages and will vary substantially by estate complexity and jurisdiction.
