Not long ago we talked about the fact that only 42 percent of U.S. adults currently have estate planning documents such as a will or living trust.. The situation in Australia is quite similar with only 55% of adults having a will.

In this article we’d like to highlight some of the most important findings from a report prepared by Charles Sturt University and The University of Adelaide called “Estate Planning in Australia or: it will never happen to me”. You can find the full report here.

Do you have a current up-to-date will?

44.90% of the respondents do not have a will. Of the other 55% that do have one, only 24% have an up-to-date will. As discussed in one of our previous articles having an outdated will is one of the top estate planning mistakes.

Have you discussed your will?

It’s a positive sign that almost everyone has discussed their will with spouse, partner or family, considering the difficulty of this conversation.

Have you created a pre-paid funeral plan?

Only 13.70% have created a pre-paid funeral plan. This low number might be due to the fact people don’t realize that the funeral could cost to your family up to $20,000.

Do you have Life Insurance?

It’s interesting to note that, according to the report, “individuals in a relationship, with children, and a higher disposable income are more likely to have life insurance.” If you’re one of the 36% that have a life insurance or are planning to have one we recommend to make sure your family will be able to find your life insurance information. This advice is based on our previous research where we found that “millions of families (yes, millions!) have lost billions of dollars”.

Online Assets

Even though the table below shows that almost everyone possesses online assets, only 28% know what will happen to their online assets in the event of incapacitation or death. If you are among the other 72% we advise you to take care of your online assets. You can download our free “Digital Estate Planning Checklist” from here.

Have you prepared a Formal Succession plan?

As we have noted in one of our articles, estate planning is even more essential for business owners. In fact, your business insurance might even require that you have some sort of plan in place to ensure that your business can continue even if you are gone. And by putting your affairs in order you can best protect both your family and your business.

According to the research paper less than 26% of business owners have prepared a succession plan.

We hope this article was helpful!

And don`t forget that you can safely store all of your estate planning documents in AfterVault.com so your family can find them when they most need your vital information.

Disclaimer: We are not lawyers. Please talk to your lawyer if you have any questions or doubts about your situation.