Trends in Making a Will

Written by Allison Kade

When I first became a mom eight months ago, a whole range of thoughts raced through my mind: What’s the deal with daycare? Isn’t this whole parenting thing going to get overwhelming sometimes? And, scariest of all, what would happen to my daughter if I weren’t around anymore?

Creating a will was on my to-do list, but it was one of those “OMG I’ll deal with this later” things. It just sounded like a time-consuming big deal. But then I started working as the editorial director at Fabric, a company that offers financial products for young families such as wills and life insurance, so I wrote my will as part of my day job—to test out our product and give feedback. I literally printed it out at work, and our CEO and finance guy were my witnesses.

Anyway, the process was really different than I imagined.

First, like a lot of people these days, I did it all online. Second, it took me about ten minutes, including the time it took to write down my feedback (I was on the job, after all). After that experience, I got curious about how other people around the country were creating their wills.

So—perks of being the editorial director!—I decided to write about it. I analyzed the data from tens of thousands of people who made wills with Fabric, and looked for interesting trends. I was surprised to find that more people than I expected were making their wills on their mobile devices, and that they were also making their wills in less time than you’d think (the median time was only seven minutes).

I was also surprised about some gender trends, like how men without kids seem interested in providing for their significant others, while women without kids seem more concerned with caring for other loved ones in their lives.

Here's what I found.

 (Editor's note - that link is full of interesting data, as well as a reminder that a will is something worth having no matter what your age or stage in life).