The 2026 Death & Inheritance Report: When, Where, and Why American Families Talk About Death, Inheritance, and Estate Planning

The 2026 Death & Inheritance Report

When, Where, and Why American Families Talk About Death, Inheritance, and Estate Planning

New Trust & Will research on the conversation most families keep postponing.

Americans are not avoiding the inheritance conversation because it is about death. They are avoiding it because it's about interrupting something happy, like a celebration.

That is the clearest finding in Trust & Will's 2026 Death and Inheritance Report, a national survey of 5,000 U.S. adults. We asked when these conversations happen, where they happen, who starts them, what gets discussed, and what happens to families afterward.

The answers overturn the assumption most of us carry into the holidays. Christmas is the occasion Americans would most avoid for a conversation about inheritance, and it holds that position in all 50 states. A funeral, the setting most people would name as the hardest, is rated as awkward by 41% of Americans, while a family member's birthday is rated as awkward by 63%.

The families who do have conversations about death, inheritance, and estate planning mostly have it on an ordinary day, with no occasion attached at all.

This report builds on Trust & Will's 2026 Estate Planning Report, which found that 56% of U.S. adults have no estate planning documents in place. This study looks at the step that comes before the paperwork: the conversation itself.

Key Findings

• 1 in 4 Americans (25%) have never had a family conversation about estate planning, inheritance, or end-of-life wishes. An additional 8% of Americans cannot remember ever having one.

• Christmas is the occasion Americans would most avoid for a conversation about inheritance, named by 37% of respondents. Christmas ranks first for avoidance in all 50 states.

• A family member's birthday is the most awkward occasion in America for this conversation, rated as awkward by 63% of Americans. A funeral or wake is rated as awkward by 41%, and an ordinary phone call is rated as awkward by 32%.

• 46% of Americans expect to receive an inheritance, and half of that group has never formally discussed it with the person leaving it. 12% of Americans who expect an inheritance expect to inherit debts or liabilities.

• 40% of Americans who lost a close family member in the past five years say that person died without a complete estate plan. Within that group, 28% say there was no plan at all and 12% say the plan was incomplete or out of date.

• 17% of Americans say money, an inheritance, or an estate permanently damaged a relationship in their family. Another 17% say it caused tension their family later recovered from.

• Americans who lost a close family member in the past year are more than twice as likely to have discussed inheritance recently. 65% of that group had the conversation within the past 12 months, compared with 31% of Americans who have not experienced a recent loss.

• Americans who have their own will or trust are more than three times as likely to come from a family that also planned. 63% say the relative they lost had a complete estate plan, compared with 18% of Americans who do not intend to create a plan of their own.

The inheritance conversation does not happen at the holiday table

We expected to find that American families discuss inheritance over Thanksgiving dinner. That is the cultural script, but the data does not support it.

Thanksgiving is the eighth most common occasion prompting family conversations about inheritance, named by 6% of Americans. Only 5% of Americans say their most recent family conversation about inheritance actually took place at Thanksgiving.

The most common answer is that no occasion prompts it at all. 22% of Americans say no specific occasion sets off these conversations in their household and the subject simply comes up. When we asked where the most recent conversation actually happened, the two leading answers were a regular in-person visit with no event attached, named by 26% of Americans, and a regular phone or video call, named by 12%. Taken together, 38% of the most recent family conversations about inheritance happened on an ordinary day.

When a specific occasion does prompt the conversation, it is usually a difficult one. A funeral or wake is the most common trigger, named by 20% of Americans, followed by a health scare or diagnosis at 19% and the death anniversary of a loved one at 17%.

Christmas is the occasion Americans protect

Christmas holds a contradictory position in this data, and the contradiction is the story.

Christmas is the most common holiday occasion for family inheritance conversations, named by 16% of Americans as a likely prompt in their household. Christmas is also the occasion Americans would most actively avoid for that same conversation, named by 37%. No other occasion in the survey comes within 22 points of it for avoidance.

Both results are true at the same time because Christmas is when American families are most likely to be together and most invested in nothing going wrong. It is the only occasion in this survey that ranks first for avoidance in every single state.

Why celebrations are harder than funerals

We asked Americans to rate how awkward it would feel to raise estate planning at five specific occasions, on a scale of 1 to 5.

The five occasions sort into two clear groups, and the line between them is not where most people would draw it.

The three celebrations cluster at the top. A family member's birthday is rated as awkward by 63% of Americans, making it the most uncomfortable setting in the country for this conversation. Thanksgiving dinner is rated as awkward by 62% of Americans, and a major sporting event by 59%.

The two occasions that are not celebrations sit well below. A funeral or wake is rated as awkward by 41% of Americans. An ordinary phone call with no occasion attached is rated as awkward by 32%, making it the easiest setting in the survey.

There is an 18-point gap between the easiest celebration and the hardest non-celebration, with no occasion falling in between. A family member's birthday is rated as awkward by 22 points more Americans than a funeral is.

This is the finding we would put in front of any family. The discomfort is not really about death. Americans can talk about death at a funeral. The discomfort is about being the person who interrupts something happy.

Older and younger Americans want opposite things

The awkwardness of an occasion depends heavily on the age of the person you are talking to, and the pattern reverses.

Among Baby Boomers, 77% say raising inheritance at Thanksgiving dinner would feel awkward. That is the highest single figure anywhere in this survey. Among Gen Z, 52% say the same, a 25-point difference.

The ordinary phone call runs the other way. Among Gen Z, 37% say raising inheritance during a regular phone call would feel awkward, compared with 27% of Baby Boomers.

So the two lines cross. Baby Boomers find the holiday table hardest and the phone call easiest. Gen Z finds the phone call harder than their grandparents do and the holiday table considerably easier.

The size of the generational gap tracks with how celebratory the occasion is. Thanksgiving dinner produces a 25-point gap between Gen Z and Baby Boomers, and a family member's birthday produces a 16-point gap, with older Americans finding both harder. A funeral or wake produces only a 6-point gap, because Americans of every age find a funeral relatively manageable. The ordinary phone call is the single occasion where the gap runs in the opposite direction, with younger Americans finding it 9 points harder than older Americans do. In short, the more festive the occasion, the wider the generational divide, and the plainer the occasion, the more that divide disappears or reverses.

A practical takeaway. Match the setting to the person you are approaching. If you are raising this with a parent or grandparent, a phone call on an unremarkable day is far easier for them than any holiday. If you are raising it with an adult child or a younger sibling, the holiday table is genuinely easier for them than it is for you.

A quarter of Americans have never had this conversation

25% of Americans have never discussed estate planning, inheritance, or end-of-life wishes with a family member. An additional 8% cannot remember ever having done so. Combined, roughly a third of American adults have no memory of ever having this conversation.

On the other side of the ledger, 46% of Americans had the conversation within the past 12 months, including 15% who had it within the past month.

Comfort with the subject is close to evenly divided. 40% of Americans describe themselves as comfortable discussing death, inheritance, or estate planning with family, while 35% describe themselves as uncomfortable. The average comfort rating is 3.1 out of 5.

What stops the conversation

No single barrier dominates, which is part of why this conversation is so easy to postpone.

The most common barrier is timing. 17% of Americans say the timing never feels right. 15% say the subject feels too morbid or uncomfortable to raise.

Then come the quieter barriers. 10% of Americans assume everything has already been handled. 10% say they do not know how to bring it up. 10% say they do not want to upset older family members.

15% of Americans report no barrier at all and say their family discusses this openly.

The hardest person to talk to is a parent

36% of Americans say a parent would be the hardest family member to have this conversation with. A sibling is named by 18% of Americans, an adult child by 15%, and a spouse or partner by 15%. 23% of Americans say the conversation would not be hard with any family member.

The more revealing pattern is who names whom, and it tracks with age more cleanly than with any other split in this data. Among Gen Z, 43% name a parent as the hardest person to talk to and just 7% name an adult child. Among Baby Boomers, those figures nearly swap: 14% name a parent and 33% name an adult child. The two lines actually cross, somewhere between Gen X and the Baby Boomer years. A third answer climbs the whole time in between them: the share saying no family member is hard rises from 19% among Gen Z to 32% among Baby Boomers, nearly catching up to “an adult child” by the end.

Some of the parent-and-child shift is availability rather than dread. Most Gen Z respondents still have a living parent and few have an adult child of their own; most Baby Boomers are the reverse. The same pattern holds among parents specifically: 42% of Americans with only minor children name their own parent as hardest, while 33% of Americans with only adult children name their own adult child as hardest. The rise in “no one is hard” isn't an availability story, though. It reflects Americans who have simply grown more at ease with the conversation as they've aged, whether from experience, repetition, or having already had it.

Whatever the mix of dread and availability, the practical effect is the same. The family member who feels hardest to approach keeps changing as people age, from a parent toward a child, even as a growing share eventually stop dreading the conversation at all.

What families discuss, and how it changes across generations

Among American families who have had these conversations, funeral and burial preferences come up most often, discussed by 46%. Healthcare and end-of-life wishes are discussed by 39%, and who inherits money or savings is discussed by 39%.

The subject matter changes almost entirely across generations, and this produces one of the largest gaps anywhere in the survey.

Among Baby Boomers whose families have had these conversations, 65% have discussed funeral and burial preferences. Among Gen Z, 29% have, a 37-point difference. Executor and power of attorney decisions follow the same pattern, discussed by 51% of Boomer families and 25% of Gen Z families.

Run the same comparison in reverse and the pattern flips. Gen Z families are more likely than Boomer families to have discussed guardianship of children, at 21% against 7%. They are more likely to have discussed guardianship of pets, at 20% against 14%. They are more likely to have discussed charitable giving, at 15% against 6%. And they are more likely to have discussed business succession, at 14% against 1%.

The inheritance conversation is not becoming easier as generations turn over. It is becoming a different conversation. Older American families are settling logistics. Younger American families are discussing dependents, pets, businesses, and giving.

What Americans expect to inherit, and what is actually there

46% of Americans expect to receive an inheritance from a family member. That figure divides into 23% of Americans who have been told what they will receive and 23% who expect something but have never had it formally discussed. 35% of Americans expect to inherit nothing, and 15% are unsure.

Among Americans who expect an inheritance, cash or savings is the most commonly expected asset, named by 57%. A house or other real estate is expected by 35%, jewelry or family heirlooms by 25%, investments or retirement accounts by 24%, and a vehicle by 23%.

12% of Americans who expect an inheritance expect to inherit debts or liabilities.

What the people who have already been through it say

We asked the 4,304 respondents who lost a close family member in the past five years whether that person had a plan in place when they died.

40% said no. Specifically, 28% of Americans who lost a close family member say that person had no will or estate plan at all, and 12% say a plan existed but was incomplete or out of date. An additional 19% do not know whether a plan existed.

Set the two findings side by side. 46% of Americans expect an inheritance, while 40% of Americans who have already experienced a family death say the plan was either missing or out of date.

The out-of-date finding deserves separate attention. It is concentrated among younger respondents: 20% of Gen Z who lost a family member say the plan was incomplete or out of date, compared with 4% of Baby Boomers. That gap most likely reflects who died rather than generational behavior, since Gen Z respondents most often lost a grandparent whose plan may have gone untouched for decades. That is precisely the risk. An estate plan is not a one-time purchase. It ages alongside the family it was written for.

When money changes a family

41% of Americans say money, an inheritance, or an estate has affected a relationship in their own family. Within that, 17% of Americans say it permanently damaged a family relationship, 17% say it caused tension their family later recovered from, and 8% say it actually brought family members closer together.

An additional 21% of Americans have not experienced this themselves but have watched it happen in families they know.

Among American families who do have these conversations, 34% say the discussions always or often lead to disagreement, arguments, or family tension. Only 11% say the conversations never do.

The generational difference here is severe. Among Gen Z respondents whose families discuss these topics, 53% say the conversations always or often turn into arguments. Among Baby Boomers, 9% say the same.

What actually gets American families talking

Two things in this data reliably move a family from silence to conversation. Neither of them is a holiday.

A death in the family

Americans who lost a close family member in the past year are more than twice as likely to have discussed inheritance recently. 65% of that group had the conversation within the past 12 months, compared with 31% of Americans who have not experienced a recent loss. 30% of Americans who lost someone in the past year had the conversation within the past month alone.

The silence breaks in the same proportion. Among Americans who have not experienced a family death, 43% have never discussed inheritance with their family. Among Americans who lost a close family member in the past year, that figure falls to 18%.

The same window is also the hardest time to talk. Among Americans whose family loss occurred in the past year, 48% say these conversations always or often turn into arguments. Among Americans whose loss occurred more than five years ago, 17% say the same.

And then a finding worth sitting with. Americans whose most recent family loss occurred more than five years ago report the most open family communication of any group in this survey. 19% say their family has no barrier and discusses this freely, compared with 9% of Americans who have never experienced a family loss. Their rate of conflict is the lowest measured in the study.

Loss forces the conversation. The first year is genuinely painful. Families that come through it end up better at this than families who never had to.

Having a plan of your own

Americans who have completed a will or trust look almost nothing like Americans who have not.

Among Americans with a completed estate plan, 7% have never had a family conversation about this subject. Among Americans who do not intend to create a plan, 61% have never had that conversation. Among Americans with a completed plan, 74% know where their family's estate documents are kept, compared with 21% of those who do not intend to create a plan.

The most striking result concerns the previous generation. Americans who have their own estate plan are more than three times as likely to say the family member they lost also had one, at 63% compared with 18% of Americans who do not intend to create a plan of their own.

Estate planning appears to be something families model for one another. It is not only a product a person buys. It is a behavior that gets passed down.

One result here runs against expectation, and we are reporting it as we found it. Americans with a completed estate plan are considerably more likely to say money has damaged a relationship in their family, at 59% compared with 22% of those who do not intend to plan. We do not read that as planning causing conflict. The more plausible explanation runs the other way. Americans who have watched an inheritance go badly are the ones who go and make a plan.

Who does the talking is not who has the answers

American women are more likely than American men to start these conversations. 42% of women say they personally start family conversations about death, inheritance, or estate planning, compared with 38% of men. Women's conversations also cover more ground on nearly every topic, including funeral and burial preferences, discussed by 51% of women compared with 38% of men, and healthcare and end-of-life wishes, discussed by 43% of women compared with 33% of men.

Women are also considerably less likely to know what is actually in the plan.

56% of American men know where their older relatives keep their will or estate documents, compared with 44% of American women. 55% of men have been told the details or general outline of an older relative's estate plan, compared with 47% of women. And 55% of men expect to receive an inheritance, compared with 40% of women.

The shape of it is what matters here. The person doing the work of starting the conversation is not reliably the person who ends up holding the information.

If that describes your family, another general conversation will not close the gap. A specific question will. Where are the documents kept, who is named as executor, and can I see the plan.

Where you live changes the conversation

Regional differences in this survey are real but smaller than generational ones, with one clear exception.

Christmas divides the country along a consistent line. In the Southeast, 20% of residents say Christmas is a likely occasion for their family to discuss inheritance, and 34% say Christmas is the occasion they would most avoid for that conversation, the lowest avoidance rate in the country. In the West, 12% of residents say Christmas is a likely occasion for the conversation, and 40% say it is the occasion they would most avoid, the highest avoidance rate in the country. The South treats Christmas as its window for this conversation. The West protects the holiday from it.

The Midwest produces the most interesting contradiction in the report. Midwestern families report the highest rate of open communication in the country, with 17% saying their family has no barrier to discussing this. They report the lowest rate of permanent relationship damage from money or inheritance, at 14%. They are also the closest families geographically, with 37% living within a 30-minute drive of the relatives they gather with.

And yet 31% of Midwesterners say they have no idea where their family's estate documents are kept, the highest rate of any region.

Comfort and paperwork are not the same thing. A family can talk openly and still not know where the will is.

The state picture

We ranked all 50 states on each of the five occasions, and the consistency across states is itself the finding.

In all 50 states, the most awkward occasion for this conversation is a celebration. In 47 of 50 states, the easiest occasion is an ordinary phone call. In 48 of 50 states, a funeral or wake is easier than all three celebrations. Florida and Georgia are the only exceptions, and Florida is the only state where a funeral rates as the most awkward of the five occasions.

Some state-level detail, all of it specific to a named occasion:

• New York is the most difficult state in the country for the ordinary phone call. 50% of New Yorkers say raising inheritance during a regular phone call would feel awkward, compared with 32% of Americans nationally.

• North Dakota is the easiest state in the country on three of the five occasions, including the ordinary phone call, where 14% of North Dakotans rate it awkward.

• Kansas rates a major sporting event as awkward at 72%, the highest single state and occasion figure in the survey.

• Kentucky has the highest share of residents who have never had this conversation, at 36%.

• Iowa rates Thanksgiving dinner as awkward at 72%, the highest of any state.

What this means for families

This report contains one large finding and several specific ones. The large finding is that the obstacle is not the subject matter. Americans can discuss death at a funeral. The obstacle is the fear of ruining an occasion, which is why the celebrations on your calendar are the worst possible venues and an unremarkable weekday is the best one.

Here is what follows from that.

You do not need an occasion, and waiting for one is the problem. 22% of American families say the subject simply comes up with no occasion attached, and 38% of the most recent family conversations about inheritance took place during a regular visit or phone call. Timing is the single most common barrier in this survey, named by 17% of Americans. The data suggests the right moment mostly does not arrive on its own.

Do not save this for the holidays. Christmas is the occasion Americans would most avoid for this conversation, named by 37% nationally and ranking first for avoidance in all 50 states. A holiday gathering is the moment your family is least receptive, not most.

Match the setting to the person you are approaching. Older relatives find a phone call on an ordinary day far easier than a holiday gathering. Younger relatives find the reverse. Choose based on who is on the other side of the conversation rather than what feels most convenient to you.

Ask a specific question rather than a general one. 41% of Americans do not know where their family's estate documents are kept, and in most cases that is because no one asked directly. "Do you have a will?" produces a yes or a no. "Where do you keep it, who is named as executor, and can I see it?" produces information you can act on.

If you expect an inheritance, confirm it out loud. 23% of Americans expect an inheritance that has never been formally discussed, and 12% of Americans expecting an inheritance expect to inherit debts or liabilities. An expectation that has never been said out loud is not a plan.

If you already have a plan, check the date on it. 12% of Americans who lost a close family member say a plan existed but was incomplete or out of date. Review your documents after any marriage, birth, death, move, or significant purchase.

There is also a reason to do this beyond the paperwork. Trust & Will's Peace of Mind Report found that people with estate plans are nearly five times less likely to feel anxious every day than people without one, and three times less likely to lose sleep from worry. The conversation is uncomfortable for an afternoon. Not having had it lasts considerably longer.

What this means for professionals

For financial advisors, estate planning attorneys, and other professionals whose clients are navigating a family transition, several findings carry direct practice implications.

Family conflict is a planning trigger, not a planning outcome. Americans who have watched money damage their family are dramatically more likely to have a plan. 59% of Americans with a completed will or trust report that money or an inheritance has affected a family relationship, compared with 22% of Americans who do not intend to create a plan. When a client mentions a family falling out over an estate, that is not a digression from the meeting. That is the opening.

Planning behavior runs in families. Clients with their own estate plan are more than three times as likely to have come from a family that also planned, at 63% compared with 18%. The adult children of your current clients are a meaningfully different prospect than the general population.

Gen X is the least connected generation in this data. 28% of Gen X have never had a family conversation about inheritance, the highest of any generation. Gen X reports the lowest comfort level with the subject, at 3 out of 5. And 32% of Gen X have no idea where their parents keep their estate documents, also the highest of any generation. This is the second consecutive Trust & Will study to identify Gen X as the least prepared cohort. Our 2026 Estate Planning Report found that 62% of Gen X have no estate planning documents at all.

Widowed clients are both the highest-need and the most receptive segment. 53% of widowed Americans say the person they lost had no complete estate plan. Widowed Americans are now the most likely group in the country to personally start these conversations, at 61%, and the most likely to say their family discusses the subject openly, at 26%. They learned this the hard way and changed their behavior as a result.

The setting advice applies to your own conversations too. Match the setting to the person you are approaching. Older clients and older relatives find a phone call on an ordinary day far easier than a holiday. Younger clients and adult children find the reverse. This applies as much to a professional raising the subject with a client as it does to a family member raising it at home, and it applies to you personally when the family in question is your own.

Professionals are rarely the ones who open the door. Only 8% of American families say a financial advisor, attorney, or other professional started their conversation about inheritance. The remaining 92% represents a substantial gap between the moment a family becomes ready and the moment anyone helps them.

The education gap is smaller than the activation gap. Only 11% of Americans say they are not sure what an estate plan is. Most people know what this is and what it is for. What they do not know is how to start the conversation that precedes it.

Related research: Trust & Will's Real Estate Inheritance Report found that 37% of Americans would take estate planning advice from a housing professional, rising to 57% among Gen Z, which points to how often these conversations begin outside a financial advisor's office.

Methodology

This random double-opt-in online survey of 5,000 U.S. adults who have at least one living aging family member was commissioned by Trust & Will and conducted by market research company Talker Research, in accordance with the Market Research Society's (MRS) code of conduct. The survey was fielded between August 19 and September 2, 2026.

The survey consisted of 20 main questions plus screener and classification questions. Respondents were drawn from the general population of U.S. adults ages 18 and older, with representation across all 50 states and five U.S. regions (Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, Midwest, and West).

Results were analyzed across the following segments: gender, generation, region, state, parent status, marital status, estate plan status, and experience of family loss, including both time since the most recent loss and which family member was lost.

The margin of error for the total sample is plus or minus 1.4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. Cells are only reported on for analysis if they have a minimum of 80 respondents, and statistical significance is calculated at the 95% level.

Base sizes. Six questions in this survey were asked of a subset of respondents rather than the full sample, and figures drawn from those questions are identified in context throughout this report. Questions about the content and dynamics of family conversations were asked only of the 3,312 respondents who have had such a conversation, and of the 3,096 who could identify where it took place. Questions about expected inheritance contents were asked of the 2,525 respondents expecting or who have already received an inheritance. Questions about a deceased relative's estate plan were asked of the 4,304 respondents who lost a close family member in the past five years.

Segment reporting. The Silent Generation and separated respondents fell below the 80-respondent reporting minimum and are excluded from segment analysis. State-level results are based on 100 respondents per state, carry a margin of error of roughly plus or minus 9.8 percentage points, and should be read as directional. State comparisons in this report are limited to named extremes rather than adjacent rankings.

Limitations. This survey relies on self-reported data and reflects respondents' stated knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors, which may differ from documented reality. The survey was conducted online and requires internet access, which may limit representation of certain populations. Among respondents who reported having had a family conversation about these topics, 6.5% selected "none of these" when asked which subjects came up, which suggests some variation in how respondents interpreted that question. Responses reflect a point in time.

This survey is directional and intended to provide consumer insights.

This survey was overseen by Talker Research, whose team members are members of the Market Research Society (MRS) and the European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research (ESOMAR).

Frequently Asked Questions

How many Americans have never talked to their family about inheritance? 25% of Americans have never had a family conversation about estate planning, inheritance, or end-of-life wishes, and an additional 8% cannot remember ever having one. On the other side, 46% of Americans had the conversation within the past 12 months.

When do most families talk about inheritance? Most American families discuss inheritance on an ordinary day with no occasion attached. 22% of Americans say no specific occasion prompts these conversations, and 38% of the most recent family conversations about inheritance took place during a regular visit or phone call. Among occasions that do prompt the conversation, a funeral or wake leads at 20%, followed by a health scare or diagnosis at 19%.

Is Thanksgiving a good time to talk about estate planning? The data suggests it is not. 62% of Americans say raising inheritance at Thanksgiving dinner would feel awkward, and that figure rises to 77% among Baby Boomers. Only 5% of Americans say their most recent family conversation about inheritance took place at Thanksgiving.

What is the worst occasion to bring up inheritance with family? Christmas. 37% of Americans say Christmas is the occasion they would most actively avoid for a conversation about inheritance, more than double any other occasion, and Christmas ranks first for avoidance in all 50 states.

What is the easiest way to bring up estate planning with parents? An ordinary phone call with no occasion attached. It is the least awkward setting in this survey, rated as awkward by 32% of Americans overall, and it is the easiest option for Baby Boomers specifically, who rate it as awkward at 27% compared with 77% for Thanksgiving dinner.

How many Americans expect to receive an inheritance? 46% of Americans expect to receive an inheritance from a family member. That includes 23% who have been told what they will receive and 23% who expect something that has never been formally discussed. 35% of Americans expect to inherit nothing.

Can you inherit debt? 12% of Americans who expect an inheritance expect to inherit debts or liabilities. In most cases debts are settled from the estate rather than passed to heirs personally, but the expectation is common enough that it is worth confirming with the estate's executor or an attorney.

How often do inheritance conversations cause family conflict? Among American families who have these conversations, 34% say they always or often lead to disagreement, and 11% say they never do. More broadly, 17% of all Americans say money, an inheritance, or an estate permanently damaged a relationship in their family.

How many people die without a will? Among Americans who lost a close family member in the past five years, 28% say that person had no will or estate plan at all, and an additional 12% say the plan was incomplete or out of date. 19% do not know whether a plan existed.

Who is the hardest family member to talk to about inheritance? A parent, named by 36% of Americans. A sibling is named by 18%, an adult child by 15%, and a spouse or partner by 15%. 23% of Americans say the conversation would not be hard with any family member.

Do most people know where their parents keep their will? No. 27% of Americans know exactly where their older relatives keep their will or estate documents and 21% know generally. 28% have no idea, and 13% have never thought about it.

Does a death in the family make people more likely to plan? Yes, substantially. 65% of Americans who lost a close family member in the past year discussed inheritance within the past 12 months, compared with 31% of Americans who have not experienced a recent loss. The effect fades over time, but Americans whose loss occurred more than five years ago report the most open family communication of any group in this survey.

What should I actually ask my parents about their estate plan? Ask specific questions rather than general ones: where the documents are kept, who is named as executor, whether a healthcare directive exists, and whether you can read the plan. 41% of Americans do not know where their family's estate documents are kept, and in most cases the reason is that no one asked directly.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial, or tax advice. Estate planning laws vary by state. Please consult a licensed estate planning attorney or qualified financial advisor for guidance specific to your situation.

Trust & Will is an online service providing legal forms and information. We are not a law firm and we do not provide legal advice.