How to Stop Putting Off Your Estate Plan (And Why It Matters More Than You Think)

Recent data from financial planners reveals that most people are hesitant to commit to any sort of estate planning, instead opting to defer when possible – a trend which could have negative impacts down the line if not addressed early.

The 2026 Financial Advisor Insights report shows that when advisors bring up estate planning, 72% of clients express interest but defer concrete action, citing reasons like wanting to consult an attorney (26%), needing more information (25%), and having other priorities take precedence (17%).

“Most people don’t start because they don’t know where to begin, not because they don’t care,” says Matthew Koppelman, the co-founder of Precision Wealth Planners, a financial planning firm based in California.

Indeed, most American adults have done no estate planning whatsoever, with Gen X being the worst offenders, with what experts are labelling “The Sandwich Gap” between Boomers (over half of whom have done some estate planning) and Millennials (who have more estate planning documents than Gen Xers).

Some may be taking the research into their own hands. Pew research shows that the majority of Americans use AI multiple times a week. Though OpenAI doesn’t make search volume data publicly available, it’s not much of a leap to think that people are turning the questions they once brought to Google to ChatGPT for quick answers, reassurance, and even legal advice – a move that lawyers are advising strongly against.

The best time to start estate planning

Getting ahead of estate planning will solve a number of problems for you and your family down the line. Problems like unexpected costs, long probate periods, and tax horror stories. If you don’t know where to begin, a financial planner is a good place to start.

“My role is to educate clients on what an estate plan actually does,” says Koppelman. “Using real stories of successes and failures, reframing the outcome from ‘documents’ to peace of mind for them and their families.”

The way advisors deal with estate planning conversations is equally important. Advisors often avoid the topic fearing it will be uncomfortable, but the data says the opposite is true. Conversations that involve estate planning often result in a lift of client sentiment by nearly 5% and reduced neutral to negative outcomes.

The timing is equally important. Estate planning topics are shorter and less interactive than tax or retirement planning, reflecting their placement towards the end of calls. Surfacing estate planning topics earlier gives more time for the subject to breathe. Clients can ask questions and engage more thoroughly with their options, with less likelihood of deferral.

“Leading with empathy and support rather than lecturing is important,” Koppelman says. The report shows that advisor emotional intelligence has a direct correlation to improving client outcomes – especially with heavy topics like estate planning.

Advisor emotional intelligence is one of the strongest differentiators of client outcomes, measured by talk-time discipline, open-ended questions, empathetic statements, and emotional check-ins.

The mechanics of a good estate planning conversation are learnable: ask more than you tell, check in on how the client is feeling, and leave room for the conversation to go somewhere.

The cost of waiting

Estate planning is one of the few financial decisions where procrastination has consequences that fall entirely on the people you leave behind. Probate is expensive. Assets without designated beneficiaries can end up in the wrong hands or tied up in court for years.

The data makes clear that the barrier is rarely money or complexity, but inertia. The conversation is not the hard part. Starting it is.