For many older Americans, long-term care planning assumes a built-in safety net: their children. But what happens when someone doesn’t have kids to rely on?
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New research shows that childfree Americans are significantly less prepared for long-term care than the broader public, despite often having higher net worths and more disposable income.
A survey of over 600 childfree adults by estate-planning service Childfree Trust, conducted from June to September, found that fewer than 13% have long-term care insurance, while nearly a third have no plan for future care.
A challenge, and opportunity, for advisors
For financial advisors guiding childfree clients, these gaps can pose significant challenges. But at the same time, they offer an opportunity for advisors to make meaningful improvements to their clients’ lives.
“This survey shows advisors must move beyond child-centric models and engage clients in values-based conversations that address the ‘Who will help me as I age?’ question head-on,” said study co-author Jay Zigmont, CEO and founder of Childfree Wealth in Mount Juliet, Tennessee.
Childfree clients face unique pressures when it comes to long-term care. With his own clients, Zigmont recommends planning by the mid-40s, when policies are generally more affordable and a client’s health is typically at its best. But even then, LTC insurance policies are far from cheap.
“We did it for somebody in their mid-40s, and the standalone policy cost them like $225,000,” Zigmont said.
Some wealthier clients, afraid of throwing away money on a policy they may never use, instead look to self-insure. But effectively self-ensuring is often even pricier.
“If you’re going to self-insure, if you want to pay out of pocket, today you’ve got to set aside half a million dollars, invest it, and that will cover your long-term care,” Zigmont said. “Now, that’s a rough number, but it’s close enough.”
Zigmont tells his clients that creating a plan to cover long-term care is a necessary step they have to take before being able to retire.
Beyond long-term care insurance
And the gap extends beyond long-term care insurance.
The survey found that fewer than 1 in 5 childfree respondents has a will, and only about 30% have completed any foundational estate planning documents, such as trusts or powers of attorney. According to Zigmont, the planning gap among childfree savers reflects broader systemic oversights in the U.S.
“The childfree population represents a quarter of all U.S. adults, yet most financial and legal systems still revolve around families with children,” Zigmont said in a statement. “When you don’t have children, the default next-of-kin assumption disappears, resulting in cracks in the foundation of traditional financial and estate planning.”
Many childfree clients initially struggle to engage with estate planning because the need for the documents feels more abstract than it might for clients with children. Some clients find that a tangible responsibility, such as caring for a pet, helps bridge the gap.
Zigmont noted that setting up pet trusts — which assign funds and oversight for animals — often motivates clients to tackle broader estate planning tasks.
“We’re actually finding it’s easier to say, ‘Hey, how about you make a plan for your pets? You need a power of attorney and a will to figure out who takes care of your animals when you can’t.’ And they’re more willing to do it for [their pets] than for their own sake,” Zigmont said.
Changing the conversation for childfree clients
For many childfree clients, the biggest hurdle isn’t the cost of policies or documents, but the paralysis regarding who to appoint as a decision-maker.
The study describes this as a “decision void.” Without adult children to serve as the default option, many childfree individuals simply delay planning indefinitely.
This creates a significant opening for professional fiduciaries, yet a trust gap remains. While nearly half (47%) of childfree respondents said they would consider appointing a professional to manage their affairs, a slightly larger share (51%) explicitly stated they do not trust professional fiduciaries.
To bridge this gap, researchers suggest advisors frame LTC and estate planning not as a roadmap for death, but as a strategy for protecting quality of life while living. By focusing on incapacity — answering who will make medical choices or pay bills during a temporary illness — advisors can help clients see these documents as tools for preserving autonomy.
“For childfree individuals, the path forward involves acknowledging their unique circumstances, formalizing their chosen family networks and prioritizing planning for incapacity — not just death — to secure the autonomy they so highly value,” Zigmont said.
