Solo-Nation: Estate Planning for a New Era of “Singletons”

2013 Estate Planning, Guardianship and Elder law Conference Moody Gardens Galveston, Texas August 8-9, 2013

Bryn Poland and Pi-Yi Mayo* 5223 Garth Road Baytown, Texas 77521

*Certified Elder Law Attorney by the National Elder Law Foundation

Nothing in this paper is to be construed as the rendering of legal advice for specific cases, and readers are responsible for obtaining such advice from their own legal counsel. This publication is intended for educational and informational purposes only. 2013 Copyright, Pi-Yi Mayo, All Rights Reserved I. Introduction

In 1985, Rose Nylund and Dorothy Zbornak responded to a room-for-rent ad on a bulletin board in a local grocery store in Miami, Florida, posted by their future roommate, Blanche Devereaux. The single women were soon joined by Dorothy’s mother, Sophia Petrillo, after the retirement home where she lived, Shady Pines, burned down. For the next ten years, the four women took care of each other as they aged while (mostly) enjoying each other’s company. The roommates cook together, help each other when one get sick or has an emergency, and they form an informal “family” together. While they don’t always get along, they are always there for each other in a time of need.

If this story line sounds familiar, it should. It is the premise for the sitcom The Golden Girls. The show reached critical acclaim and each of the four stars received Emmy Awards for their roles. The country fell in love with these women, but it is unlikely that the show’s producers realized just how close to reality their show would become nearly thirty years later.

Today, more and more people are living their entire adult lives as a single person. As our society changes and grows, single adults are finding success and happiness without necessarily committing to long-term relationships. And while societal views of single people have evolved, our nation has not given much thought as to the unique needs of this new demographic as it ages.

Over the last century, medical advances have lengthened the average life-span by nearly two years every decade. The average US citizen can expect to live to the age of 80. At the same time, recently the country has seen a dramatic downturn in family size. These changes create problems that science cannot solve. One of the most troubling is that soon, people will routinely reach old age with very few, if any, immediate family members. This is so troubling because while our profession of elder law and estate planning attorneys tries to provide for the aging needs of our clients, the fact remains that the default care position for the elderly and disabled in our country remains with immediate family members.

Efforts to address these concerns will require significant legal and policy reforms, as well as increased educational outreach efforts. In the meantime, single people facing the question of how to prepare for aging can rely on basic estate planning tools as a bandage for some of the inequities they currently experience. This Article outlines the ways in which estate-planning and property laws can be used to mitigate the problems of aging alone. It also addresses some existing laws that should be reformed in order to adequately provide for this new demographic, as well as highlights laws that may be beneficial to a single person aging alone.

1 II. Solo Nation

A. Today vs. Yesterday

Today, there are 102 million people in the United States who are over age 18 and single.1 That number accounts for more than 44 percent of the adult population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.2 This is in stark contrast to the make-up of the United States several decades ago. In 1957, a study showed that more than 70 percent of all adults were married.3 Of those surveyed that year, nearly all respondents stated that those who preferred to be unmarried were “immoral,” “neurotic,” or “sick.”4 Times are changing. The extraordinary rise of living alone could be the greatest social change since the baby boom era.5 Time Magazine ranked the rise in “singletons”6 as the number one life-changing trend of 2011.7 Conventional wisdom–that those who live along tend to be lonely and isolated–is easily rebuffed given today’s statistics. In recent times, many authors have written books focused on this fascinating trend of living alone and staying single will into adulthood.8 Recent research shows that societal attitudes are changing. Singles are now sometimes envied by couples rather than being universally pitied. It is no longer automatically assumed that all women will get married and raise a family, nor are all men expected to marry and provide for said family. These days, fewer and fewer people see that tradition as the only path to a happy and successful life.

1U.S. CENSUS BUREAU NEWS, Profile America Facts for Features, July 31, 2012, http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/cb12-ff18.html. The definition of “Single” is any adult who has never been married, is divorced, or is widowed, according to U.S. Census Bureau’s America’s Families and Living Arrangements survey of 2009. http://www.census.gov/cps/about/cpsdef.html

2Id.

3Eric Klinenberg, Solo Nation: American Consumers Stay Single, FORTUNE, Feb. 6, 2012, available at, http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2012/01/25/eric-klinenberg-going-solo/.

4Id.

5Eric Klinenberg, Living Alone is the New Norm, TIME MAGAZINE, Mar.12, 2012, available at, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2108055,00.html.

6The author uses the term “singletons” to refer to any single adult who that never been married, is divorced, or is widowed.

7Klinenberg, supra note 5.

8See ROBERT PUTNAM, BOWLING ALONE: THE COLLAPSE AND REVIVAL OF AMERICAN COMMUNITY, (Simon & Schuster 2000) and JACQUELINE OLDS, M.D. & RICHARD S. SCHWARTZ, M.D., THE LONELY AMERICAN: DRIFTING APART IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY (Beacon Press 2009).

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First appeared as part of the conference materials for the 15th Annual Estate Planning, Guardianship and Elder Law Conference session "Solo-Nation: Estate Planning for a New Era of Singletons"