Will ownership among Americans fell from 31% to 26% in a single year — a five-point drop confirmed by Trust & Will's 2026 Estate Planning Report (n=5,000 U.S. adults) — even as the digital assets left unplanned average $191,516 per household, according to the same report, corroborated by a Bryn Mawr Trust survey from December 2024.

That is not a rounding error. It is a measurable, directional signal: Americans are getting worse at estate planning, not better, and the gap between what they own and what they have protected is widening.

Are Americans Getting Better or Worse at Estate Planning?

The answer, in 2026, is unambiguously worse.

A year ago, 31% of Americans had a will. Today that number is 26%, per Trust & Will's 2026 Estate Planning Report. That five-point year-over-year decline reverses any optimism the estate planning industry had built from post-pandemic awareness campaigns. The share of Americans with no estate planning documents at all stands at 56% — unchanged from last year.

Trust ownership did rise slightly, from 11% to 14%, per the same report. But that modest climb does not close the gap. It redistributes a small fraction of the planning-aware population into a different legal instrument. The majority — 56% — still has nothing on paper.

The Digital Asset Problem Runs Deeper Than the Headline

Here is where the protection gap becomes especially stark. Among the 26% who do have a will, 23% have made no arrangements for their digital accounts, according to Trust & Will 2026. That means even the minority who completed the most basic estate planning step left the fastest-growing asset class entirely unaddressed.

The average American holds $191,516 in personal digital assets — accounts, subscriptions, stored content, cryptocurrency, and digital files — per Trust & Will 2026, corroborated by Bryn Mawr Trust. And 76% of Americans report little or no knowledge of digital estate planning, per the same sources.

This is not a knowledge problem that resolves itself. The assets exist. The accounts persist after death. Without explicit instructions, families spend months — sometimes years — navigating platform policies, legal thickets, and locked credentials, all while grieving.

What a Will Cannot Transfer

A will can transfer property. It can name beneficiaries for financial accounts. It cannot transfer your voice. It cannot transfer the answer to a question your daughter will ask at 25 that she could not have known to ask at your funeral. It cannot deliver the message you would have spoken at your grandchild's wedding.

That gap — between legal protection and human presence — is what Eterna Legacy was built to close. Presence Insurance™ is the category: you record voice messages, video messages, and written words for the people you love. Eterna Legacy stores them, and delivers them to your heirs after you are gone — according to your instructions, on your timeline.

The will handles the assets. Presence Insurance™ handles the you.

Who Is Being Left Behind

The Trust & Will 2026 data reveals one finding that rarely surfaces in coverage of the 56% headline: 10% of Americans say they will leave nothing meaningful behind — down from 17% in 2025, a seven-point shift. That change matters. More Americans than ever believe they have something worth passing on.

They just have not recorded it yet.

The 63% of grandparents who have never recorded a single life story, per an AARP Family Legacy Study from 2023, are not indifferent. The same study found that 78% want to leave something meaningful. The friction is not motivation. It is structure. They need a vault, a designated recipient, and a system that delivers.

Eterna Legacy is that system.

FAQ

Did will ownership really decline in a single year? Yes. Trust & Will's 2026 Estate Planning Report, based on a sample of 5,000 U.S. adults surveyed between January 28 and February 5, 2026, found that will ownership fell from 31% in 2025 to 26% in 2026 — a five-point decline in twelve months.

What happens to digital assets when someone dies without instructions? They typically go unaddressed. The average American holds $191,516 in digital assets, per Trust & Will 2026 and Bryn Mawr Trust. Without explicit instructions — a digital executor designation, account-by-account directions — families face locked accounts, lost credentials, and platform policies that vary by company. Many assets are simply abandoned.

Does having a will cover digital assets? Not automatically. Among the 26% of Americans who have a will, 23% have made no arrangements for their digital accounts, per Trust & Will 2026. A traditional will addresses property and financial accounts. Digital assets — and recorded messages, voice, and video — require separate, explicit planning.

What is Presence Insurance™? Presence Insurance™ is a category coined by Eterna Legacy to describe the guaranteed delivery of voice, video, and written messages to your family after you are gone. Where a will transfers assets, Presence Insurance™ transfers presence — the words, instructions, and recordings you would have spoken if you had known it was your last chance.

How do I start? You record a message — voice, video, or written — designate the recipient, and set the delivery conditions. Eterna Legacy stores it and delivers it when the time comes. It takes less than ten minutes to leave something your family will keep for the rest of their lives.

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Start your vault today →