Clients occasionally ask if children in their 20s should have an estate plan. For most clients, the answer is no, the need for an estate plan arises when your children marry and begin having children of their own. When that occurs, encouraging them to name a guardian for the grandchildren is important.
Of course, if there is substantial family wealth at issue, a pre-nuptial agreement is usually a good idea before a child gets married, but that is a separate issue. Absent significant wealth, an estate plan for a single child in their 20s is not only unlikely to be needed, but the default intestacy laws probably closely mirror what the child would choose: everything to the parents, and if the par- ents have predeceased, then to the child’s sibling.
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