A large proportion of Americans die without a will. In addition, many people don’t evaluate their legal affairs related to end-of-life issues. Numerous people never get around to making specific legal arrangements to protect their survivors.

People falsely believe the property will pass on to their heirs without complications, assets have to be of a certain size to justify having a will, there isn’t a need to talk about living wills, estate planning isn’t important for young parents and the costs of preparing wills and important documents is too expensive to make it worthwhile.

To increase awareness about the importance of evaluating your current legal affairs, appreciate the importance of family communication about end-of-life issues and making a personal action plan to protect, distribute and transfer assets a priority, UNH Cooperative Extension sponsors statewide the Legally Secure Your Financial Future series that includes two seminars "Legal Issues: Are You Prepared?" and "Advance Care Directives: Who Will Decide?"

Evaluations of those who’ve participated show that their lives have been changed due to this series. All participants report they increased their knowledge about estate planning. As well, the evaluations show:

• 78 percent organized financial records and 22 percent plan to,
• 73 percent organized family records and 27 percent plan to,
• 72 percent organized property records and 28 percent have started,
• 47 percent have an inventory of important papers and 53 percent plan to,
• 51 percent wrote a will and 49 percent plan to and
• 50 percent named a guardian for their children and 50 percent plan to so.