TY - JOUR
T1 - Wills, public policy, and financial well-being among surviving spouses
AU - Nicholas, Lauren Hersch
AU - Baum, Micah Y.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Maria Prados and participants at the Gateway to Global Aging Data Research Conference, funded by the National Institute on Aging (2R01 AG030153). All errors are our own.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier B.V.
Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2020/6
Y1 - 2020/6
N2 - The loss of a spouse is widely recognized as a large financial shock to many households. In this paper, we use harmonized, cross-national survey data from the Health and Retirement Study, the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, and the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing to study will use, inheritance policies, and retained wealth among surviving spouses. We document significant cross-national variation in will use and default spousal inheritance regimes in the absence of a will. Many people die intestate in all study countries, even when they had anticipated leaving a bequest. The vast majority of decedents preparing wills include their spouses, and on average these spouses retain more wealth than spouses of intestate decedents.
AB - The loss of a spouse is widely recognized as a large financial shock to many households. In this paper, we use harmonized, cross-national survey data from the Health and Retirement Study, the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, and the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing to study will use, inheritance policies, and retained wealth among surviving spouses. We document significant cross-national variation in will use and default spousal inheritance regimes in the absence of a will. Many people die intestate in all study countries, even when they had anticipated leaving a bequest. The vast majority of decedents preparing wills include their spouses, and on average these spouses retain more wealth than spouses of intestate decedents.
KW - Inheritance regimes
KW - Wealth
KW - Widows
KW - Wills
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jeoa.2019.100211
DO - 10.1016/j.jeoa.2019.100211
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85075394402
SN - 2212-828X
VL - 16
JO - Journal of the Economics of Ageing
JF - Journal of the Economics of Ageing
M1 - 100211
ER -