SAN DIEGO - iSportsWire -- Trust & Will's 2026 Estate Planning Report identifies a significant inversion in U.S. estate planning preparedness: the generation carrying the most financial responsibility for others — Gen X — is the least protected. The study, conducted by Talker Research among 5,000 U.S. adults, names this pattern the Sandwich Gap.

Among Gen X adults, 62% have no estate planning documents — a higher unprotected rate than Millennials (58%), Gen Z (54%), or Baby Boomers (48%). 56% of all U.S. adults have no estate planning documents, while 73% rate estate planning as important — a 29-point gap between intention and action that Trust & Will has tracked across consecutive years.

KEY FINDINGS

• 62% of Gen X have no estate planning documents — the highest unprotected rate of any American generation in 2026.
• Only 24% of Gen X hold a will, 10% hold a trust — compared with 37% will ownership among Baby Boomers and 18–21% trust ownership among Millennials and Gen Z.
• 56% of all U.S. adults have no estate planning documents — while 73% say estate planning is important to them.
• 68% of adults in serious or engaged relationships have no estate planning documents — a higher unprotected rate than divorced, separated, or widowed Americans (55%).
• 42% of Americans wouldn't know what to do if a family member died today — rising to 56% among those with no estate planning documents at all.
• 27% of those without a plan cite "not enough assets" as the main reason — followed by procrastination (23%), not knowing where to start (17%), cost (15%), and complexity (12%).

COMMENTARY

More on iSports Wire

• Michael Maertens Hired as Century Fasteners Corp. – Chief Financial Officer
• Built to Last: Why BSI Is Among the Nation's Fastest-Growing Companies, and One of Its Best Places to Work
• Bent Danholm's The Architecture of Demand Reaches No. 2 in Amazon Real Estate Sales
• Contracting Resources Group Named to Inc. 5000 for the Ninth Time
• ImagineX Named to 2026 Inc. 5000 List of America's Fastest-Growing Private Companies

Cody Barbo, Co-founder and CEO of Trust & Will, said:
"What the 2026 data keeps coming back to is readiness; not whether people care, because most do, but whether they've done anything about it. The Sandwich Gap is the sharpest version of that problem. Gen X is running the most complicated financial households in America right now, and the majority of them have nothing in writing. No will, no trust, no named guardian. When something goes wrong for that family, the absence of a plan doesn't just create legal complexity. It leaves the people they love without clear direction at the worst possible moment. That's the gap we're focused on closing."

FURTHER READING

• Primary source — Trust & Will: The Sandwich Gap
• Full report — Trust & Will 2026 Estate Planning Report
• Independent analysis — Talker Research
• Survey methodology — Talker Research methodology

ABOUT TRUST & WILL

Trust & Will is the leading digital estate planning platform in North America, simplifying the process of creating, managing, and storing wills, trusts, guardianship, and probate plans. Trust & Will has helped more than one million families plan their estates and is committed to making estate planning accessible to every American. For more information, visit trustandwill.com.

More on iSports Wire

• ASSIST Software Becomes One of the First European Companies Certified to ISO/IEC 42001
• The World's No.1 Superstar® Enters the Occult with New Track and Cinematic Visual "Under Your Spell"
• PricZone Launches Online Shopping Platform Offering Electronics, Gaming, and More
• Heritage at South Brunswick Introduces New Ferndale Floorplan: The Largest Single-Family Home Design in the Community
• Q&A with Homegrown Sporting Goods president Jim Zetts

ABOUT TALKER RESEARCH

Talker Research is a U.S.-based market research and content firm specializing in commissioned consumer studies for media, brand, and corporate audiences. The Talker Research research team are members of Market Research Society (MRS) and the European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research (ESOMAR). Talker Research is also part of AAPOR's Transparency Initiative, which is designed to promote methodological disclosure.

Findings from this study are available at talkerresearch.com.
Independent analysis: talkerresearch.com/the-sandwich-gap/