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August is National Make a Will Month, and the statistics that underpin it are hard to look away from. Only 24% of American adults currently have a will, the lowest rate recorded since tracking began, that means three out of every four adults in this country have made no legal provision for their families, their property, or their minor children. If you have been meaning to get this done and have not yet followed through, you are far from alone, and this August is the right moment to finally change that.

Make a Will Month exists because procrastination is the single biggest obstacle to estate planning in America, not cost, not complexity, and not ignorance. The campaign gives people a concrete reason to act this month instead of pushing the task into next year. For families across the country, that reason carries real legal and financial weight. An estate without a will is not neutral territory. It is a situation where a judge, applying a state formula you had no hand in writing, makes the decisions you were always meant to make yourself.

This guide covers what Make a Will Month is, why the numbers are so alarming, what actually happens when someone dies without a will, how much it costs to create one, and the exact steps to get started today. T-Bridge Finance LLC, a Maryland-based financial services firm founded by Dr. Taiwo Akindahunsi, specialises in estate planning and trust services for families who want their wishes honored rather than overruled by a court applying default law.

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What Is National Make a Will Month?

National Make a Will Month is an annual awareness campaign held every August to encourage Americans to create or update their wills and estate plans. The campaign is supported by estate planning attorneys, financial institutions, and legal service organisations across the country. Its purpose is direct: to address the widespread failure of adults to protect their families through basic estate planning documents before a health crisis or unexpected death forces the issue.

The campaign has been running for decades, and its core message has not changed. Making a will is not something reserved for people who are elderly or ill, it is something you do when you have people or property you care about, regardless of your age or the size of your estate. August provides a cultural inflection point, a month-long social signal that now is the time, for the millions of people who have been postponing this task for years.

For estate planning professionals like Dr. Taiwo Akindahunsi at T-Bridge Finance LLC, Make a Will Month is less a marketing occasion than a genuine opportunity: the one moment each year when the gap between knowing you should have a will and actually getting one feels narrow enough to close.

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Why Do So Many Americans Still Not Have a Will?

The answer is almost never cost and almost never complexity. According to Caring.com’s 2025 Wills and Estate Planning Study, 43% of Americans who do not have a will report that they simply have not gotten around to it. That is not a knowledge problem, it is procrastination wearing a busy schedule as a disguise.

Other common reasons include the belief that estate planning is only necessary for wealthy people, concerns about what making a will forces a person to emotionally confront, and genuine uncertainty about how the process works. Each of these barriers is understandable, and none of them hold up once a person actually begins.

The misconception that wills are only for the wealthy is perhaps the most dangerous. If you have a bank account, a vehicle, a life insurance policy, or a minor child, you have an estate. Without a will, the distribution of everything you own and the guardianship of everyone who depends on you is decided by state law rather than your own judgment. That outcome affects ordinary families far more severely than wealthy ones, because wealthy families almost always have attorneys who force the planning conversation long before it becomes urgent.

According to LegalZoom’s 2026 How America Prepares Its Legacy report, more than 50% of American adults have no estate plan of any kind. Trust adoption is accelerating, with formation rates surging by more than 20 percentage points in several states between 2025 and 2026, which suggests that the families who do plan are moving toward more comprehensive protections. The families who do not plan remain fully exposed to whatever formula their state legislature wrote for them.

What Actually Happens If You Die Without a Will?

Dying without a will is called dying intestate, and it triggers an automatic legal process that the deceased has no control over and that surviving family members often experience as both financially costly and emotionally exhausting.

When there is no will, your state’s intestate succession laws determine who inherits your assets, who manages your estate as personal representative, and in the case of minor children, who is appointed their guardian. The court applies a statutory formula, and that formula does not know that you were estranged from a sibling, that you wanted your business partner to manage the company you built together, or that you had strong feelings about where your children should be raised. It applies the same rule to every family regardless of their actual circumstances.

For families in Maryland, intestate succession is governed by the Maryland Estates and Trusts Code, Sections 3-101 through 3-114. The outcomes are rigid. If you are married with minor children and those children are not also your spouse’s biological children, your spouse receives the first $100,000 of your estate plus half of the remaining probate property, and the other half goes to the children. Unmarried partners, regardless of how many years they have shared a home and finances, receive nothing under Maryland law. Stepchildren who were never legally adopted also receive nothing.

Beyond the distribution problem, Maryland intestate probate typically adds four to six months to the timeline compared to estates with a clear will, according to estate law analysis published in 2025. Maryland also imposes an inheritance tax of 10% on property passing to anyone other than a direct relative, meaning friends, stepchildren, and unmarried partners who might receive assets under intestacy still face a tax bill on what they inherit.

Making a will is not a complex legal undertaking for most families, it is the legal difference between a court deciding your legacy and you deciding it yourself.

What Does a Will Cover, and What Does It Not Cover?

This distinction is one of the most important in all of estate planning, and it is consistently underexplained in Make a Will Month content published by both national platforms and local law firms.

A will controls how your individually owned assets are distributed after your death. It does not automatically govern everything you own.Assets that pass outside a will through beneficiary designation include retirement accounts such as 401(k)s and IRAs, life insurance policy proceeds, payable-on-death bank accounts, and assets held in a living trust.

These transfer directly to the named beneficiary by contract, regardless of what your will says. If your will names your spouse as the primary heir but your 401(k) still lists an ex-partner from fifteen years ago, your ex-partner inherits the retirement account. The will cannot override a beneficiary designation, because beneficiary designations operate under a separate legal mechanism entirely.

This is precisely why T-Bridge Finance LLC reviews both the will and all existing beneficiary designations at the same time. Dr. Taiwo Akindahunsi’s approach to estate planning treats these documents as a single coordinated system, not as separate paperwork.

The division is worth understanding clearly before you begin.

Covered by your will: individually owned bank accounts, real estate titled solely in your name, personal property and vehicles, business interests held as a sole proprietorship, the appointment of an executor, and the naming of a guardian for minor children.

Not covered by your will: 401(k), IRA, and pension accounts, life insurance proceeds, accounts held jointly with right of survivorship, payable-on-death or transfer-on-death accounts, and any assets held inside a living trust.Understanding this boundary is the difference between an estate plan that actually works and one that leaves critical gaps your family discovers at the worst possible moment.

How Much Does It Cost to Make a Will?

Cost is one of the most frequently cited barriers to estate planning and one of the most consistently misunderstood. According to Nolo’s 2026 guide to will costs, the low end for a simple attorney-drafted will is around $300, with a price closer to $1,000 being more common, and $1,200 not unusual when additional documents are involved.

A complete basic estate plan, which typically includes a last will and testament, a financial power of attorney, and an advance healthcare directive, generally ranges from $1,000 to $2,500 with most estate planning attorneys. FindLaw’s 2025 cost analysis confirms this range, noting that complex estates involving business ownership, blended families, or special needs trusts can push fees from $3,000 to $7,000 or higher.

For families working within a tighter budget, online services offer template wills starting between $100 and $200. The caveat on those options is significant, and we address it directly in the comparison below.

Every August, Make a Will Month reminds families that the cost of professional estate planning is a fraction of the cost of dying without one, and that the comparison only becomes more sobering when probate fees and family conflict are factored in.

The most useful frame for evaluating cost is not the dollar amount in isolation but the comparison. A basic estate plan costs roughly what most families spend on a long weekend away. The cost of dying without a will, including probate fees, potential family litigation, and a process that can take 12 to 18 months longer than a planned estate, is typically many times higher and arrives at the moment when the family is least equipped to absorb it.

Attorney-Drafted Will vs. Online Will Service: Which Is Right for You?

This is the question most families are quietly trying to answer during Make a Will Month, and it deserves a direct response rather than a diplomatic hedge.

Option 1: Working with a Licensed Estate Planning Professional

An estate planning attorney or financial professional does more than produce documents. The professional reviews your full financial picture, identifies conflicts between existing beneficiary designations and your stated wishes, ensures your will meets your specific state’s execution requirements, and walks you through decisions that template software cannot anticipate: what happens to a minor child’s inheritance before they reach adulthood, how to handle a business interest, or how to protect a family member with a disability without disqualifying them from public benefits.

In Maryland, a valid will must be signed in the presence of two adult witnesses. While notarization is not required for validity, a self-proving affidavit executed before a notary makes the probate process substantially smoother. Under Maryland Estates and Trusts Code Section 4-102, specific requirements govern the signing, witnessing, and form of a valid will. An attorney ensures those requirements are satisfied so the document holds up under scrutiny.

For most families with children, real property, retirement accounts, or business interests, working with a qualified professional is the approach T-Bridge Finance LLC recommends without reservation. Dr. Taiwo Akindahunsi and the T-Bridge team work with clients across Maryland to build estate plans that reflect each family’s actual situation rather than a template’s assumptions about what that situation might look like.

Option 2: Using an Online or AI-Assisted Will Platform

Online will platforms and AI tools have lowered the barrier to starting the estate planning process, and that accessibility has genuine value for people who would otherwise do nothing at all.

According to Super Lawyers’ 2026 analysis of AI-generated wills, no law specifically prohibits an AI-generated will, but legal validity depends entirely on whether the document satisfies each state’s specific execution requirements. A template that is legally sufficient in Texas may be inadequate in Maryland.

The practical risk with online wills is not that they are poorly written in a general sense, it is that they cannot account for the specifics of your situation: the blended family, the business held with a partner, the child with a disability, the property located in two different states. A document that looks complete on a screen may contain gaps that only surface after you are no longer here to correct them.

A 2025 study that tested AI chatbots on 46 estate planning questions found that the best-performing platform earned an A or B grade on only 69% of responses, which represents a meaningful margin for consequential error in a document that governs your family’s future.

The clearest guidance is this: if your situation is genuinely simple and you understand your state’s execution requirements, an online service with a subsequent attorney review is a reasonable starting point. If your situation involves any complexity at all, starting with a qualified professional is the better use of both your time and your money.

How Do You Actually Start Making a Will?

The process is shorter than most people expect, and that gap between expectation and reality is one of the primary reasons Make a Will Month exists: to give people permission to discover that the task is manageable.

A simple will can be completed in two to three appointments, and the first one requires no prior documents, no formal preparation, and no paperwork brought in advance. All it requires is your wishes.

The first step is a basic asset inventory. Spend fifteen minutes writing down every account, property, insurance policy, and significant possession you own, along with an approximate value and the current beneficiary designation where one exists. This does not need to be a formal document. A handwritten list is sufficient to get the first conversation started.

The second step is making three core decisions that define every will: who inherits your assets, who will serve as your executor to carry out those instructions, and if you have minor children, who you would want to raise them if you could not. These decisions belong to you. An estate planning professional helps you think through the implications of each choice, but the choices themselves are entirely yours.

The third step is scheduling a consultation with a qualified professional who can translate those decisions into a legally enforceable document. T-Bridge Finance LLC provides estate planning and trust services for families across Maryland, and an initial consultation with Dr. Taiwo Akindahunsi gives you a clear picture of what your specific situation requires before you commit to a fee structure.

According to LegalZoom’s 2026 data, 85% of customers now begin their estate planning process on a phone or computer, and half complete the process entirely on a mobile device. That starting point is genuinely useful for research and orientation. The families who end up with a plan that actually works, one that handles every asset, every relationship, and every state-specific requirement correctly, are the ones who pair that initial research with professional guidance.

Make a Will Month is not a deadline, it is a starting line.

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Why Make a Will Month Matters More Right Now Than It Has in Years

The timing of National Make a Will Month intersects with a financial and demographic reality that makes estate planning more urgent in 2026 than it has been in a generation.

The United States is currently in the middle of the largest intergenerational wealth transfer in its history, as Baby Boomer wealth moves to children and grandchildren on a scale the country has never seen before. LegalZoom’s 2026 report identifies this transfer as one of the primary forces behind accelerating trust adoption, as families recognise that a basic will alone may not be sufficient to manage a complex, multigenerational transition of assets and responsibility.

For diaspora investors, small business owners, and high-income professionals, the stakes are compounded by the fact that assets are frequently distributed across multiple states, business structures, and financial accounts, each with its own title requirements and beneficiary designation rules. According to Trust and Will’s 2025 Estate Planning Report, only 31% of Americans have a will and just 11% have a trust, leaving the vast majority of families without the legal instruments they need to manage a meaningful transfer of wealth.

T-Bridge Finance LLC was built to serve exactly this demographic: small business owners, high-income professionals, and diaspora investors who have spent years building significant assets and have not yet built the legal plan to protect and transfer them according to their own wishes. Dr. Taiwo Akindahunsi founded T-Bridge Finance with this specific gap in mind, and the firm’s estate planning and trust services are designed for families navigating real complexity, not families with simple estates who need a form filled in.

Make a Will Month is the right time to close that gap, not because August carries any legal significance, but because you are reading this now, which means you are already closer to a decision than you were when you woke up this morning.

Take Your First Step This Make a Will Month

If you have been planning to get this done and have not yet followed through, August is the month to make it happen. T-Bridge Finance LLC provides estate planning and trust services for families and professionals across Maryland who are ready to protect what they have built and ensure their wishes are honored.

Schedule your initial consultation with Dr. Taiwo Akindahunsi and the T-Bridge Finance LLC estate planning team. The first conversation is straightforward, and the plan you build from it is yours to carry forward.

About the Author

Maxwell is a financial content strategist at T-Bridge Finance LLC, a financial services firm based in Bowie, Maryland. All articles published on this blog are reviewed by the licensed PROFESSIONALS at T-Bridge Finance LLC before publication to ensure accuracy and compliance with current insurance and financial guidelines. T-Bridge Finance LLC holds active insurance licenses and serves families across the United States with life insurance, estate planning, college funding, and tax-advantaged wealth strategies. schedule a free consultation.

FAQ

1. What is National Make a Will Month?

National Make a Will Month is an annual awareness campaign observed every August to encourage Americans to create or update their wills and estate plans. It is supported by estate planning professionals, financial institutions, and legal service organisations across the United States. The campaign converts widespread intention into legal action by giving people a specific, socially recognised moment to begin the estate planning process they have been delaying. For estate planning professionals and financial advisors alike, Make a Will Month represents the highest-leverage moment of the year to convert long-held intention into a signed, legally enforceable document.

2. How many Americans do not have a will right now?

According to Caring.com’s 2025 Wills and Estate Planning Study, only 24% of American adults have a will, the lowest rate recorded since the study began. LegalZoom’s 2026 report confirms that more than 50% of American adults have no estate plan of any kind, including no will, no trust, and no advance directive. The rate has been declining consistently since 2022.

3. What happens if you die without a will?

Dying without a will means dying intestate, which triggers your state’s default succession formula. A court appoints a personal representative to distribute your assets according to a statutory formula rather than your personal wishes. Unmarried partners, stepchildren, close friends, and organisations you supported may receive nothing. The process typically takes four to six months longer than a planned estate and costs significantly more in legal and administrative fees. It is entirely avoidable with a basic estate plan.

4. How much does it cost to make a will with a professional?

According to Nolo’s 2026 guide to will costs, a simple attorney-drafted will typically costs between $300 and $1,200. A complete basic estate plan including a will, power of attorney, and healthcare directive generally runs from $1,000 to $2,500 with most estate planning attorneys. Complex estates involving trusts, business succession, or blended family situations can cost between $3,000 and $7,000 or more. T-Bridge Finance LLC offers an initial consultation to help you understand exactly what your specific situation requires before any fee commitment is made.

5. Does a will cover my retirement accounts and life insurance policy?

No. Retirement accounts including 401(k)s and IRAs, and life insurance proceeds, pass directly to the named beneficiary by contract and operate entirely outside your will. A will cannot override a beneficiary designation. If your 401(k) still lists an ex-spouse or a deceased parent as beneficiary, that designation controls, regardless of what your will says. This is why a comprehensive estate plan reviews both the will and all existing beneficiary designations at the same time, which is standard practice at T-Bridge Finance LLC.

Disclaimer: The information in this article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, or insurance advice. Life insurance and financial products vary by carrier, state of residence, age, health profile, and individual circumstances. Past index performance does not guarantee future results. Cash value illustrations referenced in this article are hypothetical projections and not a guarantee of policy performance. T-Bridge Finance LLC is a licensed financial services firm operating in the United States. Please consult a licensed financial advisor or insurance professional before making any insurance or financial planning decisions. To speak with our team, contact us here.