Your client has a will.

But will it actually control where their assets go?

According to research presented by Russell James, J.D., Ph.D., CFP®, the answer may be surprising.

In a recent Financial Experts Network webinar, Wills That Won’t: A 25-Year National Study of Charitable Planning Additions, Deletions, and Ultimate Estate Transfers, James explored longitudinal research that follows individuals from approximately age 50 through the end of life—and then examines where their assets ultimately went.

Unlike research that captures estate planning at a single point in time, this data provides what James described as the “entire lifetime movie.” It shows when estate plans change, what triggers those changes, which charitable intentions survive, and whether the documents people created actually control their assets.

The findings have some important implications for financial advisors.

Finding #1: A Will May Not Control Much at All

Perhaps the most surprising statistic from the webinar was this:

Among people who reported having a signed and witnessed will shortly before death, the will ultimately controlled assets in only 38% of the cases studied.

Researchers examined 7,150 people who had reported having a signed and witnessed will within the final two years of life. After death, researchers followed up with their heirs.

In only 38% of those cases did the will control anything.

Funded trusts were dramatically different.

Approximately 76% of funded trusts were reported as actually controlling assets.

Why the enormous difference?

Because the will is often a backup plan.

Consider everything that may transfer outside it:

• IRAs and 401(k)s with beneficiary designations
• Life insurance
• Transfer-on-death brokerage accounts
• Payable-on-death bank accounts
• Jointly owned property
• Real estate with transfer-on-death arrangements where permitted
• Assets already titled in a trust

For advisors, this raises a critical question:

Does your client's estate plan on paper match the way their assets will actually transfer?

A beautifully drafted will can't override a beneficiary designation or ownership arrangement that directs an asset somewhere else.

Finding #2: Adding Charity to an Estate Plan May Increase Lifetime Giving

Some charities have historically worried that encouraging an estate gift could reduce a donor's current giving.

The research James presented suggests just the opposite.

When people who previously had no charitable component in their estate plan added one, their charitable giving increased by approximately 77%.

And the increase didn't disappear the following year. It remained elevated for years afterward.

James offered an interesting explanation.

Most people spend their lives thinking about charitable giving as an income decision:

“How much can I afford to give this year?”

Estate planning can introduce an entirely different question:

“How much of my wealth do I ultimately want to use for charitable purposes?”

Once wealth becomes relevant to the philanthropic conversation, the donor may begin thinking differently about what's possible—not only after death, but during life.

Finding #3: Charitable Estate Plans Aren't Nearly as Permanent as They Look

A client tells a charity that it's included in their estate plan.

Is the gift now secure?

Not necessarily.

The longitudinal data found considerable movement into and out of charitable estate planning.

Among people who reported having a charitable component and were still participating in the research 10 years later, only approximately 55% to 60% still reported having a charitable component.

And even that doesn't necessarily mean the same charity remained a beneficiary.

The study only measured whether some charitable component remained.

The practical lesson is important:

Estate plans are living plans.

They change as clients' lives change.

What Causes Clients to Change Their Plans?

James examined the factors associated with adding a charitable component to an estate plan.

Then he examined the factors associated with removing one.

Surprisingly, the lists looked very similar.

Changes tended to occur when one of two things happened:

Death became more real, or family circumstances changed.

Triggers included:

• Declining health
• Cancer
• Heart problems
• Stroke
• Approaching the end of life
• Divorce
• Widowhood
• A first child
• A first grandchild

These events don't necessarily cause someone to become more—or less—charitable.

They cause people to revisit their plans.

And once an estate plan is reopened, every part of it may be reconsidered.

For advisors, that suggests an opportunity to use major life transitions as a prompt for a broader estate-plan review.

Finding #4: Much of Charitable Estate Planning Happens Late in Life

Advisors may assume that charitable estate planning is something established decades before death.

Often, it isn't.

James's research found that a substantial amount of charitable estate planning takes place during the final five years of life.

Among people who ultimately transferred money to charity, a majority of charitable estates included provisions added within approximately five years of death.

But there's an interesting twist.

Although many charitable provisions are added late, plans established earlier can result in substantially larger gifts when they remain in place.

James reported that a longer-term charitable plan that survived until death generated a charitable transfer approximately three times as large as one added during the final two years of life.

So the lesson isn't to wait.

It's almost the opposite:

Start the conversation early—but don't assume the conversation is finished.

Finding #5: Simply Asking About Charity Can Change the Outcome

This may be the most immediately actionable finding for advisors.

James described a study involving approximately 3,000 people going through the normal will-planning process.

Participants were randomly assigned to different groups.

The first received standard estate-planning questions without any reference to charity.

Approximately 5% included charity in their estate documents.

A second group was asked one additional question:

Would you like to leave any money to charity in your will?

That one question more than doubled charitable participation.

A third group was asked the question along with a social-norm statement indicating that many other people choose to leave money to charity.

Participation increased to more than three times the baseline rate.

Even more interesting, James reported that the average charitable gift in that final group was approximately twice as large as in the other groups.

The takeaway isn't that advisors should persuade clients to leave money to charity.

It's that advisors shouldn't inadvertently leave philanthropy out of the planning process.

A simple question such as:

“Are there any charitable organizations or causes you'd like to support as part of your estate plan?”

can reveal goals that might otherwise never enter the conversation.

Who Is Most Likely to Leave Money to Charity?

Because the research follows people over many years, James could examine which characteristics actually predicted charitable transfers at death.

Among the strongest predictors were:

• Consistent charitable giving throughout life
• Having no children or grandchildren
• The size of previous charitable gifts
• Consistently maintaining a funded trust
• Greater wealth
• Growing wealth
• Continuing to give near the end of life

When looking specifically at the dollar amount ultimately transferred to charity, annual giving, wealth at death, childlessness, continued giving and funded trusts were particularly important factors.

This suggests that advisors shouldn't look only at a client's net worth when identifying potential charitable-planning conversations.

A client's behavior over time can be equally informative.

Childlessness Is an Especially Strong Indicator

Family structure stood out throughout the research.

Among people age 55 and older who had estate documents, James presented charitable-plan participation rates of approximately:

• 7% to 9% among those with grandchildren
• 13% to 14% among those with children but no grandchildren
• 35% among those without children

That difference becomes particularly significant when combined with another demographic trend: baby boomers are more likely to be childless than previous generations.

For an advisor working with a client who doesn't have descendants, charitable planning may therefore deserve a place in the conversation—even if the client hasn't raised the subject.

The question doesn't have to be complicated:

“After taking care of the people who matter to you, is there anything else you'd like your estate to accomplish?”

The Estate-Planning Gap in Blended Families

Another surprising finding involved blended families.

You might expect families with more complicated relationships to be more likely to have estate documents.

The data James presented showed the opposite.

Among married people with children age 50 and older, approximately 35% of traditional nuclear families had no will or trust documents.

Among blended families with stepchildren, that number rose to approximately 56%.

James suggested that complexity itself may contribute to inaction.

When spouses don't agree about how assets should ultimately be divided among children and stepchildren, it can be easier to postpone the conversation.

Unfortunately, doing nothing is still an estate-planning decision—just one determined largely by beneficiary designations, ownership arrangements and state law rather than a coordinated plan.

The “Great Wealth Transfer” May Be Later Than You Think

James also challenged one of the most common narratives in financial services: that younger generations are about to experience an enormous influx of inherited wealth.

His argument wasn't that wealth won't transfer.

It's that the timing and recipients are frequently misunderstood.

As James put it, wealth doesn't transfer when people die.

Wealth transfers when people with wealth die.

Wealthier people tend to live longer.

And for married couples, significant generational wealth often doesn't transfer until the surviving spouse dies.

James cited IRS data showing that approximately 61% of estate dollars transferred by widows and widowers came from people who died in their 90s or 100s.

That changes the picture dramatically.

The children receiving large inheritances may not be 30 or 40.

They may be in their 60s—or older.

Will the Great Wealth Transfer Make Less-Wealthy Heirs Rich?

The data James presented also challenged another assumption.

Only about 8% of inherited dollars went to individuals who were in the bottom half of wealth holders before receiving their inheritance.

Most inherited dollars went to people who were already relatively wealthy.

James's broader point was that the wealth transfer is real—but its impact may look very different from some popular descriptions.

It may be:

Larger than previous transfers.

But also:

Later, more concentrated, and more likely to reach people who already have wealth.

That's an important distinction for advisors thinking about intergenerational wealth planning and the future client base of their practices.

Charitable Transfers Happen Later Too

Charitable organizations face a similar timing issue.

James reported that approximately 70% to 90% of charitable bequest dollars come from decedents age 80 or older, depending on how the data is measured.

He estimated that the age at which half of eventual charitable estate dollars have transferred is now approximately 90.

Different charitable strategies also tend to appear at different stages of life.

According to the patterns he presented:

Charitable remainder trusts tend to peak in the early 70s.

Charitable gift annuities tend to peak in the later 70s.

Actual charitable estate transfers tend to peak around ages 88 to 90.

That means charitable organizations—and advisors—may need to think in decades rather than years.

Don't Forget About Older Donors When Their Giving Declines

One finding has particularly important implications for nonprofits.

James's research showed that people who ultimately leave charitable estate gifts may actually reduce their annual giving during the final years of life.

Eight to 10 years before death, nearly 70% of eventual charitable estate donors were making substantial gifts.

By the final couple of years, that percentage had fallen considerably.

At the same time, those final years may be exactly when estate plans are being revised.

James also presented research involving people who had told a charity it was included in their estate plan.

At least 35% ultimately generated no estate gift.

When the charity had communicated with the donor during the final two years of life, the average loss rate was approximately 24%. Without recent communication, it approximately doubled.

For charitable organizations, that raises an important warning:

Don't assume an older donor who stops writing checks has stopped caring.

A Documentation Gap, Not Necessarily a Philanthropy Gap

James also explored differences in estate planning by race and ethnicity.

At first glance, the data showed substantial differences in charitable estate-plan participation.

But when researchers looked more closely, a different story emerged.

The much larger difference was in whether people had estate-planning documents at all.

Once researchers looked at individuals who had wills or trusts and accounted for factors such as wealth, differences in charitable planning narrowed substantially.

Other research on charitable intentions also demonstrated strong philanthropic interest across racial and ethnic groups.

James described the issue as primarily a documentation gap rather than a philanthropic-intention gap.

For financial professionals, that distinction matters.

The planning opportunity may not be convincing people to become charitable.

It may simply be helping more people put their existing intentions into an effective estate plan.

Where Do Donor-Advised Funds Fit?

Donor-advised funds, or DAFs, generated several questions during the webinar.

They also illustrate why measuring charitable estate transfers is becoming more complicated.

If a client contributes money to a DAF during life, the charitable transfer has already legally occurred.

Even if the money isn't distributed to an operating charity until years later—or after the donor dies—it isn't treated as an estate transfer in the same way as a traditional charitable bequest.

James noted that DAFs have grown dramatically since the longitudinal study began.

He is also seeing them increasingly evolve from relatively straightforward charitable-giving accounts into more sophisticated legacy-planning vehicles, with detailed succession arrangements that can resemble some features traditionally associated with private foundations.

That makes succession planning increasingly important.

Who advises the DAF after the donor dies?

Should the balance immediately pass to selected charities?

Should children or other successors recommend future grants?

Should the fund support a particular field of interest indefinitely?

Those questions belong in the estate-planning conversation too.

10 Questions Advisors Should Consider Asking Clients

The research suggests that charitable estate planning doesn't necessarily require an elaborate opening conversation.

Sometimes it begins with one question.

Here are 10 that advisors can consider incorporating into estate reviews:

1. When was the last time you reviewed your will or trust?
2. Do your beneficiary designations match the intentions expressed in your estate documents?
3. Are assets intended for your trust actually titled in the trust?
4. Have there been any major family changes since your plan was created?
5. Are there charitable organizations or causes you'd like to support after your lifetime?
6. Have your charitable priorities changed since your estate plan was completed?
7. Would any of your retirement assets ultimately be appropriate for charitable beneficiaries?
8. If you have a donor-advised fund, what should happen to it after your death?
9. Who should be responsible for carrying out your charitable intentions?
10. Does your current estate plan still accomplish what you actually want it to accomplish?

The Bottom Line

Russell James's research offers an important reminder:

Having an estate plan isn't the same as having an estate plan that works.

A client may have a will that controls few or none of their major assets.

They may have beneficiary designations that haven't been reviewed in years.

A trust may exist but never have been funded.

A charitable intention established a decade ago may have changed.

And an inheritance expected to arrive relatively soon may not transfer until the beneficiary is well into retirement.

For financial advisors, the opportunity is to look beyond the documents.

Who owns the assets?

Who are the beneficiaries?

What actually controls each transfer?

What has changed in the client's life?

And does the entire structure still reflect what the client wants to happen?

When it comes to charitable planning, there's one additional question worth asking:

“Is there a cause or organization you'd like your estate to support?”

The research suggests that simply making room for that conversation can matter.

About the Webinar

Wills That Won’t: A 25-Year National Study of Charitable Planning Additions, Deletions, and Ultimate Estate Transfers featured Russell James, J.D., Ph.D., CFP®, professor at Texas Tech University.

Drawing on longitudinal research that follows individuals from midlife through death and ultimate estate distribution, James examined how estate plans change, which documents actually control assets, who ultimately transfers wealth to charity, and what the data reveals about the timing of the so-called great wealth transfer.

The webinar was eligible for 1.0 continuing education credit for Financial Experts Network members holding the CFP®, CDFA® or eligible American College designations, as well as 1.0 CPE credit through NASBA and IRS continuing education for eligible CPAs and enrolled agents, subject to applicable attendance and reporting requirements.

This article is intended for educational purposes only and reflects research, findings and opinions presented during the webinar. Estate, tax and charitable-planning strategies depend on individual circumstances and applicable federal and state law. Financial professionals should coordinate with qualified legal and tax professionals when appropriate.