Over the summer, I discovered the blog of the brilliant Candice Aiston, a lawyer out of Portland, Oregon who works in the area of estate planning. My favourite post of hers so far, by far, is her essay on planning for the unexpected.
As Candice notes, asking whether you will live to be 100 is the wrong question. The right question is, what happens if I don’t? What happens if I’m one of the 120,000-odd people (in the US alone) who dies between the ages of 25 and 44? What happens if I’m in an accident, and I survive?
The impact of having a will in place and living to be 100 is excellent. The impact of not having a will in place and dying at 47, or of not having a power of attorney in place and being in an accident at 32, is incredibly far-reaching and potentially devastating, both for you and your family. Plan on living to 100 – but also plan on protecting yourself along the way.
