Estate planning is often seen as a concern for older adults, but the truth is that everyone, regardless of their age, can benefit from having a clear and comprehensive estate plan. If you have financial assets, dependents, or if you simply have wishes you want honored after your passing, estate planning should be a priority in every single part of your life. One question many people ask is, “What’s the earliest age you can create a will?” This article explores the age requirements for creating a will, and highlights why young adults should consider planning their estates earlier, while also exploring the value of using platforms such as Wills.com to get started on a legacy-minded workflow.
Legal Age Requirements for Making a Will
In most jurisdictions in the United States, the legal age requirement for making a will is 18 years old. At this age you have earned all rights of an adult, and have also proven a sense of legal comprehension in your ability to do so. In most cases the term for being at least “18 and of sound mind” is often stated, to note the necessary mental clarity to make rational legally binding decisions.
It’s also worth mentioning that state laws vary and these can greatly influence what constitutes a “legal” document and also what requirements must be met for it to be officially recognized. Some states also allow individuals younger than 18 years to create a valid will under specific circumstances, especially for anyone who is already lawfully married, or serving in the military. You should make every effort to research laws in your area if you do not have access to support from legal council or have doubts about this specific information.
Why Consider Estate Planning at a Younger Age?
While most people tend to wait for their later years before engaging with estate planning, there are valid and important reasons why younger adults should be thinking about a legacy. It often makes a lot more sense to build with an approach where this is built into the workflows that make sense. Regardless of a personal life situation, everyone could benefit from more efficient organization:
- Planning Before Major Life Changes
Major milestones or moments, are always great opportunities to stop and consider. When young, that moment to build a strategy for your savings and family goals has equal merit as any midlife or retirement based assessment of those factors. - Protection for Beneficiaries
A valid will ensures that the assets, finances, instructions you’ve clearly listed will always pass down as your see fit. You might not have minor children just yet, or assets worthy of creating a complex set of instructions now but making sure your preferences and goals are legally documented creates good business workflow with that focus from early adulthood onwards. - Unexpected Life Events
Unforeseen situations and challenges can arise without warning so the value of creating a safety net as early as possible creates much greater capacity and safety nets, should life ever throw you any curve balls. Having things taken care of from before allows you a chance to grow, test and review what worked well from experience that you gained, by putting this work in ahead of your long-term goals, and that insight will always be helpful. - Taking Control of your Future You create an overview plan, set milestones to check, manage or simply view how this progress has helped in securing that overall plan as you progress throughout your various stages of growth and life development. This pro active mindset is of greatest help.
- Creating a Lasting Legacy: Planning to give gifts and other forms of assets should always have the most clear pathway for execution when you are in good health, not after it comes with increased emotional complications due to death or injury of any key individual within a life or family circle, making the decision now as opposed to a future requirement provides much needed long-term protection and peace of mind, while always having room for you to grow in all those various areas and reaccess.
What if You Don’t Need an Attorney or Lawyer for that Specific Stage in your life?: Using Online Resources
There is still value in using a low barrier to entry, secure method to create legal documents, even if you do not have all of those complicated complex factors that are often part of an elder more experienced profile. While consulting with a qualified attorney is essential when necessary, creating some aspects of your plan does not necessarily require a high investment in expensive and confusing law procedures.
If you feel overwhelmed with starting estate planning but understand its importance, there are methods you can explore today, to gain an easier understanding:
- Consider DIY Planning and self education online, which requires no payment beyond time and your focus on completing this very crucial workflow step.
- Online resources and templates will give you a foundation for understanding which is very beneficial as an exploration period while deciding where or which strategy most closely resembles your own.
- Online digital legal platforms will allow for a greater value through tools that enable all stages, creation, planning, delivery all under the most high tech user friendly system known today that most of the time require lower investments than hourly rates from established legal professionals, and may not offer any insight into those workflows of modern automated systems for such procedures.
Wills.com: Making Estate Planning Accessible for All Ages
Wills.com provides all individuals, regardless of their age, with an affordable, convenient and highly accessible resource. With our platform you can easily take these important actions to control and secure all assets of your life in one space. We are working hard to make that type of secure platform readily accessible to all parts of American and global society:
- State-Specific Legal Documents: You’ll access comprehensive, valid and clear state-specific templates that comply with current requirements for all locations, for which your estate planning must function legally and reliably
- Secure Document Storage (Vaultly™): Always available secure encrypted digital document storage makes Vaultly™ reliable and user focused from any time or any location, as it was always intended to function as a cloud based repository of your core estate assets for whenever they need it most.
- Remote Online Notarization (RON): Utilize our network of trustworthy and tested RON personnel who understand your privacy, requirements and also provide an ethical and legally recognized way for authenticating your workflow process, as they execute the correct notarizations as well.
- Automated Delivery via Mobile App: Using the power of scheduling through an automated delivery system you can guarantee accurate delivery at your preferred times for all parties who might benefit and also minimize errors from lack of accurate communication and coordination with each unique scenario.
- Digital Legacy Management: Secure all details regarding digital data such as subscriptions, online presence and more with our specialized systems, for which are usually unaccounted for in many modern estate plans. Leaving them in our safe keeping until its transfer has to take place as is chosen by the legal executor for those plans or loved ones and beneficiaries.
Start Your Planning Journey, No Matter Your Age
While 18 years old is often the threshold for legal validity, remember, it is never too soon, nor too early to plan for your future and ensure that your assets will pass to the beneficiaries you see fit, for a life well led, as well as a safe, and legally robust framework for how things are managed during both this journey as well as for many years to come, once you’re no longer here to take care of it all, which makes planning ahead such an ideal long term investment, when building an estate of significance that deserves preservation and has also touched upon human values along the way. Use all options at hand and choose the right solution to not only secure assets, but also for clarity for a better workflow and simpler solutions and you take care to manage these things now. Let us make your workflow journey much easier, regardless of your current life experience.
Disclaimer: This article is not legal or financial advice. If you want legal advice, you should consult with a lawyer. If you want financial advice, you should consult with a financial advisor.