The Cost of Waiting

Delaying estate planning can cause avoidable family rifts and confusion

Fact checked by Ros Lederman

Brandon Peck, a Chicago attorney with Peck Ritchey, Ltd., spends his days drafting wills and trusts and speaking with clients about their end-of-life wishes. He knows the benefits of planning ahead. It beats the alternative of spending time and money in court.  

“You want to effectively communicate how you want your assets to go when you pass away so your intentions are really clear,” says Peck, who has worked as a lawyer for nearly two decades. “That alleviates a lot of arguing.”

Creating an estate plan is easy to put off as a future to-do, but waiting has serious, often avoidable, consequences. Though only about one-third of the U.S. population has an estate plan, everyone should create one regardless of wealth, lawyers say. 

Estate planning isn’t only about money. It also protects a person’s autonomy and ensures the people they trust can make medical, financial, and legal decisions if needed.

“When we say estate planning, we’re talking about advance directives as well as wills and potentially a trust,” Peck says. “We’re trying to come up with an approach to address everything while people are alive, if they become disabled, and then ultimately when they pass away.”

Estate planning and advance directives are legal documents that consist of: 

• Power of attorney for property — someone who manages your affairs

• Power of attorney for healthcare — someone who makes medical decisions on your behalf

• Living will — dictates the measures doctors should take to keep you alive

• Last will and testament — identifies an executor of an estate, beneficiaries, and guardians

• A trust — exists to manage your assets

But what if someone becomes incapacitated before they draw up an estate plan, and that person’s wishes remain unknown? If you wait too long to create those documents, family members may not know how to proceed if you become incapacitated. 

Michael Cyrs, an attorney with Savant Wealth Management in Rockford, Illinois, has seen situations in which a person may not be able to make those decisions for themselves: parents suffering from an illness, for example, or adult children recovering from an accident.

The cost of working with an attorney to draft and finalize these documents depends on the complexity of a person’s financial situation. Prices can range from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand. Once the documents are complete, however, they will likely only need periodic updates after major life events like marriage, divorce, death, or the birth of children. Without those documents, the cost of legal action can easily soar to 10 times the amount of an estate plan, Peck says. 

“There’s no good that comes out of not doing it,” Cyrs adds. “You’re just opening yourself up to a lot of heartache later on.”

When someone passes away, family members may interpret conversations about that person’s wishes differently. Without clear legal documents, family disagreements can escalate into costly court disputes. A will or trust clarifies who will take care of their affairs when they die, pay their bills, close out their social media accounts, grant access to their usernames and passwords, and determine what to do if assets remain after all bills are paid.

Without legal documents, assets in a single individual’s name valued at more than $150,000 must go through probate court. That process lets creditors and any additional heirs not listed as beneficiaries lay claim to the person’s assets. 

Organizations such as the National Council on Aging and AARP offer online estate planning resources, but attorneys caution against relying solely on generic templates. Many lawyers are willing to speak with potential clients before working with them. Just make sure to verify their credibility and check reviews.

“Do it,” Cyrs says. “Take the time to pause from your life and get things in order. See a qualified attorney, and you’ll feel so much better.”

Originally published in the Summer/Fall 2026 print issue.