A CBS News Poll, conducted by telephone from April 16-20, 2014 among 1,017 adults nationwide, concluded that 40 percent of Americans sampled had created a will. Not surprisingly, age plays a factor. Among those 18-49 years of age only 22 percent have a will, rising to 62 percent for those 50 and older. By comparison, a 2013 Harris Poll doesn’t indicate much change, finding that 39% of Americans had a will.
It appears that far less of a percentage of Americans have thought about disposing of their “virtual” assets and accounts. The Harris Poll confirms this, finding that “93 percent of Americans who have digital assets were unaware of or misinformed about what would happen to their digital assets should they die.” We are hoping this percentage will start rising rapidly, based on the amount of coverage this is starting to generate in the mainstream press.
In another question the CBS News Poll studied how often Americans consider their own death. 54% say they don’t spend much, or any, time thinking about their own death. 14% say they spend a lot of time thinking about it, and another 31% say they spend some time thinking about it. The Will Doctor assumes this would also be sensitive to the age cohort of the surveyed group.