Nov 28, 2025
Don’t have kids? Whether by choice or circumstance, you’re part of a growing cohort of Americans — and you need to think about estate planning just like parents do.
Maddy Roche is chief growth officer at Childfree Trust, which helps childless couples develop estate plans. She notes that too many systems — including insurance planning, estate planning and health care — assume people have children.
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“You can’t get an elective surgery unless you have an emergency contact,” she told CNBC Make It (1). “Those are the things that we run up against when time’s too late.”
A Pew Research Center survey found that one in four childless Americans aged 50 and older worry about having someone who will care for them (2). It’s a legitimate concern.
Nearly one in four (24.3%) Americans aged 65 to 74 have disabilities. That rises to nearly one in two (45.0%) of those aged 75 and up (3).
While not all older adults with disabilities will need help making decisions, those with cognitive impairment will. Cognitive decline tends to affect men by age 70 and women by age 73 (4).
That’s why it’s important to think about who will make decisions on your behalf if you become incapacitated. You can do that by assigning Power of Attorney as part of an estate plan.
Because if you don’t take control, others will.
If you don’t take control, others will
If you don’t specify someone to act as your power of attorney in the event you’re incapacitated, the government or health care system may end up making decisions for you (5).
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If you’re a childless couple, it’s equally important to do proactive financial planning as part of your estate plan. That could include:
- setting up jointly owned assets
- putting assets into trusts
- and ensuring you have designated your partner or someone else as beneficiaries for your accounts.
A will is essential. When one spouse passes, it’s likely that most of the deceased’s estate will go to the surviving spouse, but without a will, your estate can get tied up in probate, which can be time-consuming and costly.
If you’re the last surviving spouse in a childless couple and you die without a will, the state will distribute your assets to next-of-kin based on the state’s own hierarchy — usually surviving parents, then siblings, then more distant relatives.
The only way you can guarantee your final wishes are fulfilled — with your estate distributed to a nephew or niece, an old friend or preferred charity, for example — is with written instructions in a will.
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Priorities for an estate plan if you have no children
As mentioned, a key aspect of an estate plan if you have no children is to set up a durable power of attorney, designating someone you trust as an ‘agent’ with the power to make financial decisions on your behalf if you become incapacitated due to an accident, illness or cognitive decline.
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You may want to set up a living trust into which you can transfer assets, with instructions to a trustee as to how they are to be distributed upon your incapacitation or death.
You’ll also want to set up a health care plan that includes advance directives including (6):
- a durable medical power of attorney, assigning someone you trust to make health care decisions on your behalf if you become incapacitated.
- a living will, which will outline your treatment preferences, such as whether you wish to receive CPR if your heart stops beating.
Advance directives can also be used to express other wishes, such as whether you want to be visited by clergy or donate your organs.
The names of these documents and the rules governing them vary by state so it’s a good idea to consult an estate lawyer when drawing them up.
One of the hardest decisions to make around these preparations is who to designate as your health and financial powers of attorney (7).
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This decision can be even more complex when you’re childless. This person needs to be trustworthy, reliable and organized.
If they’re your financial agent, they should be financially literate, willing and able to take on this responsibility. Ideally, this person lives close by.
Before asking a beneficiary to also serve as your power of attorney, consider how that conflict might influence decisions they make on your behalf. Each state will have their own rules, such as minimum age requirements, for who can act as an agent.
Taking these steps to prepare can be uncomfortable and require some deep reflection, but you never know what life will throw at you — and when — so it’s best to get started sooner rather than later [8].
Article sources
We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our editorial ethics and guidelines.
CNBC Make It (1); Pew Research (2); U.S. Census (3); National Institutes of Health (4); Legal Clarity (5, 7); Forbes (6) National Institute on Aging (8)
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Vawn Himmelsbach is a veteran journalist who has been covering tech, business, finance and travel for the past three decades. Her work has been featured in publications such as The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, National Post, Metro News, Canadian Geographic, Zoomer, CAA Magazine, Travelweek, Explore Magazine, Flare and Consumer Reports, to name a few.
