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Do You Have an Estate Plan?

By John Grobe

Friday, August 3, 2007

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John Grobe is a retired federal employee with over 25 years of experience in federal human resources and President of Federal Career Experts, a training and consulting firm that specializes in federal employee retirement and career transition issues.

Do you have an estate plan?  The most common answer to that question still seems to be "No, but I'll get around to it."

A recent survey by Lawyers.com indicates that, although more than half of adults 18 and over have at least one component of an estate plan, no one component of an estate plan is owned by even 50% of the survey sample.

The following percentages of estate plan ownership were found:


The good news is that if all the folks who don't have complete or partial estate plans live to their life expectancy, they most likely will indeed "get around to it."  Where the potential problem lies is in the fact that if they die earlier than expected, their heirs could have a mess on their hands.

It is true that you can control the disposition of your property by the way in which you hold ownership and by beneficiary designations.  However, an estate plan can tie up loose ends and provide additional piece of mind. 

© 2009 John Grobe. All rights reserved. This article may not be reproduced without express written consent from John Grobe.

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Readers' Comments

  • You need to take care of things so that no one will come along and trick your spouse out of what they are due. At the time of the death of a loved one, it is overwhelming. There are decisions to be made that can affect your life and it is hard to think. When death comes, lots of scam artists come...
    Posted: September 5, 2007 12:47 PM
  • Trust me, they will still argue over who gets what. I thought that my siblings were sane, rational people. My mother did all of that plus, but when she died my siblings lost their minds! I hope to never see anything like it again ....
    Posted: September 5, 2007 12:35 PM
  • I read the article and came to some conclusions: If you die while your spouse is alive, everything goes to the spouse so Estate planning doesn't make sense. Once you are gone then the surviving spouse probably will benefit from Estate planning to make sure all is distributed properly when they pas...
    Posted: September 5, 2007 10:13 AM

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