Americans are anxious about a lot of things these days: money, the future, things not quite within their control. Managing stress can be a daily burden.
Survey results published by Trust & Will indicate that planning can allay anxiety. People who have completed a will, a trust or a health care directive report that they sleep better, have greater optimism and feel a stronger sense of control and preparedness.
Talker Research, a market research company, conducted the online survey in mid-September among 500 U.S. adults with an estate plan and 500 without one.
The survey found that 14% of nonplanners feel anxious every day, compared with 3% of planners. The breakdown is similar for those who report that stress keeps them from relaxing daily. Nonplanners are also three times more likely to lose sleep from worry.
For sure, planners do feel stress, but it is occasional, not constant as it is for nonplanners, Trust & Will noted.
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Eighty-two percent of planners surveyed said they feel at peace about how their affairs would be handled if something should happen to them, compared with 50% of nonplanners.
Seventy-six percent of planners reported that they worry less because their plans are organized, versus 41% of those without a plan. And 84% of planners say their loved ones know their wishes.
With organization comes optimism. Eight in 10 planners said they feel positive about the year ahead, while only about half of nonplanners said this. Asked whether they feel confident to handle life’s curveballs, 80% of planners but only 57% of nonplanners said yes.
Estate planning is also a physical expression of control. Seventy-two percent of planners in the survey have clear medical decision plans in place, versus just 34% of nonplanners. Twice as many planners as nonplanners said they feel prepared for unexpected life events.
And when it comes to basic organization, three-quarters of planners know exactly where their key documents are and how to access them, but only half of nonplanners do.
However, the survey found that planners often report higher anxiety about specific estate-related issues than nonplanners.
Forty-three percent said they worry about burdening loved ones with paperwork or decisions, and 40% reported high anxiety about family conflict over their estate. These rates were roughly double those of nonplanners.
At the same time, Trust & Will said, that kind of anxiety is productive; it is the tension that drives preparation, not paralysis.
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