NU Online News Service, July 24, 2003, 5:27 p.m. EDT – One-quarter of affluent U.S. adults over age 45 have not made any plans for their estates, according to survey results released by Charles Schwab Corp., San Francisco.
Researchers from Harris Interactive Inc., Rochester, N.Y., reached 1,102 affluent U.S. adults for Schwab through the Web in June. All participants were over age 45, and all had annual household incomes over $100,000 or at least $500,000 in household net worth.
The average participant had a net worth of $1.7 million.
Only 50% of the participants agreed that “people should strive to leave an inheritance to their children/beneficiaries,” and only 10% said they were very or extremely likely to leave any part of their estates to charity. Fifty-six percent said they were not at all likely to leave any part of their estates to charity.