Strictly speaking, estate planning is important for everyone. Regardless of age or gender, creating an estate plan can be helpful, and it is a step that too many people overlook. This includes both women and men, so each gender needs to learn as much as they can about the estate planning process.
That being said, there is one important reason why it may be more critical for women. As it turns out, there are many situations in which they will actually be the ones passing a couple’s assets on to the next generation.
Average life expectancy
The difference is simply that women have a longer life expectancy in the United States than men. For women, it is 79.1, while it is just 73.2 for men.
In heterosexual marriages, this means that couples who are doing their estate planning are certainly going to work together. But if the husband passes away a few years before his wife, then she is the one who is going to have final control over the assets.
This may mean that she simply has to know how to distribute them, and she doesn’t actually have to change the estate plan at all. But there are also cases where people will want to alter the estate plan to be more in line with their wishes, and they may also need to address assets that have been acquired after the passing of their partner. It’s not that these situations don’t occur for men, but simply that they are statistically more likely for women due to life expectancy differences.
As you create your estate plan, be sure you are well aware of all the valuable legal tools at your disposal.