Nearly two-thirds of Generation X adults have no will, no trust, and no power of attorney, even as the oldest members of the cohort edge toward retirement age. A new report from online estate-planning company Trust & Will found that Gen X is the least protected generation in America when it comes to basic estate planning documents.
The finding ought to alarm anyone who believes in personal responsibility and family stewardship. These are not twenty-somethings fresh out of college. Gen Xers are in their mid-forties to early sixties. Many own homes, carry life insurance, and have children approaching adulthood. Yet six in ten have done nothing, zero paperwork, to ensure their assets and medical wishes are handled if something goes wrong.
Trust & Will's 2026 Estate Planning Report, based on surveys of 5,000 adults conducted in January and February, paints a bleak picture across every generation. Fifty-six percent of all American adults lack any estate planning documents, no will, no trust, no medical or financial power of attorney, no Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act authorization form. Only 26 percent of Americans have a will. Just 14 percent have a trust.
The generational breakdown is striking. Sixty-two percent of Gen X respondents reported having no estate planning documents at all. That is worse than Millennials at 58 percent, worse than Gen Z at 54 percent, and far worse than Baby Boomers at 48 percent.
Read that again: Generation Z, the youngest adults in the survey, outpaces Gen X on basic estate preparedness. The generation that grew up with latchkeys and self-reliance has, on this measure, fallen behind kids who were born after the iPhone.
Cody Barbo, CEO of Trust & Will, told USA TODAY that Gen Xers "are old-school in some ways."
"They still prefer to go the attorney route, which is not a bad thing. But there's a shortage of estate-planning attorneys."
That shortage matters. If the traditional path is the only path many Gen Xers will consider, and that path is getting harder to walk, the result is inaction. Meanwhile, Barbo described Millennials and Gen Z as "digital natives" more willing to use online services, which may explain why younger cohorts are, paradoxically, better prepared.
Dying without a will is not a neutral act. It is a decision by default, one that hands control to local courts and state intestacy laws. The family gets no say in how assets are divided, who takes guardianship of minor children, or how medical decisions are made during incapacity.
Assets placed in trusts generally pass to beneficiaries without going through probate court, potentially saving families months of legal hassle and significant expense. A will, even a simple one, can answer questions that would otherwise be left to judges and bureaucrats. Without either document, families are at the mercy of a system that does not know them.
In a time when Americans are already navigating economic uncertainty, from rising costs driven by global conflict to volatile markets, the last thing any family needs is a preventable legal crisis triggered by a loved one's failure to sign a few pages.
One common reason Americans give for skipping estate planning is cost. Hiring an estate-planning attorney can run into hundreds or thousands of dollars. But the National Council on Aging, a charity that advocates for older Americans, notes that online estate-planning services will generate a will for a fee of $100 to $150.
Jessica Johnston, senior director of the Center for Economic Well-Being at the National Council on Aging, put it plainly when she spoke to USA TODAY in 2024:
"Any will is better than no will. If your barrier to entry is cost associated with hiring an estate attorney, then using one of these tools is a better option than having no will at all."
The National Council on Aging offers an online estate-planning guide and a curated list of what it calls the Best Online Will Makers. Preparing a will without an attorney could save hundreds or thousands of dollars compared to traditional legal fees.
So the tools exist. The price is modest. The information is free. And still, more than half the country has done nothing.
Barbo offered a more candid diagnosis of the Gen X gap. He told USA TODAY that for many in the generation, "the reality hasn't hit yet." He added that Gen Xers are "very much on the fence" about estate planning.
"They need education; they need awareness; they need an incentive."
That framing, waiting for an "incentive", captures something deeper than procrastination. It reflects a culture that has drifted away from the habits of stewardship that previous generations took for granted. The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College has found that the share of older Americans writing wills has been trending downward for years. This is not a new problem. It is an accelerating one.
And it is not limited to the working class or the asset-poor. The survey covered 5,000 adults across all generations. The numbers suggest a broad, cross-demographic failure to plan, one that cuts across income levels and life stages.
In a period when geopolitical instability and market swings remind us how quickly circumstances can change, the case for getting your affairs in order has never been more urgent. Life does not wait for you to feel ready.
The Trust & Will report measured ownership of several key documents: wills, trusts, medical powers of attorney, financial powers of attorney, and HIPAA authorization forms. Each serves a distinct purpose. A will directs asset distribution after death. A trust can shield assets from probate. Powers of attorney designate someone to make medical or financial decisions if you cannot. A HIPAA form lets designated people access your health records.
None of these documents requires vast wealth to justify. A parent with a modest home, a retirement account, and minor children has every reason to have all of them. The absence of a plan does not mean there is nothing to plan for. It means the plan will be made by strangers, in a courtroom, on a timeline you did not choose.
Barbo noted that certain life events, buying a house, having a child, losing a parent, tend to trigger estate-planning conversations. But for millions of Gen Xers, those triggers have apparently come and gone without producing action. The unpredictability of life is not an abstraction. It is the entire reason estate planning exists.
There is no government program that can fix this. No federal mandate will make you write a will. This is the most personal kind of responsibility, the kind that protects your own family, on your own initiative, with your own signature.
The tools are affordable. The information is available. The stakes are as high as they get: your children, your home, your savings, your medical care. Gen X built its identity on self-reliance. The numbers say that identity has a gap where the paperwork should be.
A generation that prides itself on not needing anyone's help ought to make sure its families don't end up needing a judge's.
