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Important Financial Concepts for Individuals and Couples Without Kids
As a married parent of two children, it took me time to fully understand the complexities and different approaches couples and individuals without children need when managing their money and planning for the future.
For me, financial planning involved:
- Having children
- A 529 plan to fund their college
- Planning weddings
- Passing wealth to my children as tax efficiently as possible
It did not take very long for me to realize that planning for childless couples and childfree individuals allows incredible freedom to design a financial life that truly reflects their values, dreams, and passions.
This freedom comes with both exciting possibilities and important responsibilities. Without children to depend on in later years, the childless couple and the childfree individual must build a robust safety net and plan more thoughtfully for their future care and support.
With proper planning, you can create a financial plan that gives more options, possibly an earlier retirement, and the ability to pursue passions confidently.
The Importance of Estate Planning
When a person dies without any heirs and no will or trust, their estate becomes subject to the state's intestate succession laws. In plain English, what this means is that the government gets everything if they do not find distant relatives.
The process is costly as various hands dig deep into the assets and could feast on the estate. Here is what typically happens:
State Takes Control (Escheatment): If there are truly no surviving heirs whatsoever, the deceased person's assets will eventually "escheat" to the state. This means the state government becomes the owner of all the property and assets.
Thorough Search for Heirs: Before assets escheat to the state, the probate court and estate administrators conduct an extensive search for any heirs. This process can take considerable time and resources, as they will look for:
- Distant relatives like cousins, aunts, uncles, or their descendants
- Half-relatives from previous marriages
- Anyone who might have a legal claim to the estate
This could mean that a relative you despise could receive all your assets!
The Probate Process: Even without a will, the estate must go through probate court. The court will:
- Appoint an administrator to handle the estate
- Pay off any outstanding debts and taxes
- Liquidate assets if necessary
- Hold the remaining assets while searching for heirs
Why This Matters: All these point to why estate planning is important even for people without children. Those without obvious heirs are more vulnerable to intestate laws than families with children. The state's distribution may not be what the deceased person would have wanted.
What You Should Do: To avoid this, you should create a will or trust specifying exactly where they want their assets to go, whether to friends, extended family members, or giving it all to charity. This ensures your wishes are honored rather than leaving everything to chance and potentially to the state.
Why Your Financial Planning May Be Different
Financially, you typically have more disposable income during your working years, which could mean you may save more aggressively and take different financial risks.
Your timeline for “financial independence” can accelerate dramatically. Without the significant costs of raising children, the childless couple and the childfree individual might find themselves in a position to:
- Retire much earlier than their peers
- Take extended breaks from traditional employment
This flexibility allows you to:
- Pursue entrepreneurial ventures
- Travel extensively
- Invest in personal growth and experiences that might not be feasible for couples with children
However, this freedom also means you must take full responsibility for your long-term security. You cannot rely on adult children to provide care or support in your later years, which makes building a more substantial financial cushion and creating alternative support systems critically important.
Differences in Career and Retirement
Parents often plan around milestones such as marriage, home ownership, children, college, weddings, and grandchildren.
But non-parents may plan around goals like:
- Taking a sabbatical in their forties
- Writing a novel
- Traveling the world
- Switching careers multiple times
- Pursuing passions as they arise
- Retiring early
- Starting a small business
Alternative Savings Strategies
One of the biggest advantages of being childfree is the ability to save more during peak earning years.
But that same flexibility also means your savings strategy may need to look different from traditional retirement planning:
- Use a mix of retirement accounts and more accessible investments
- Maintain a larger emergency fund — ideally 9–12 months of living expenses (vs. 3–6) to support career flexibility and sabbaticals.
- Build a cushion before pursuing projects, business ventures, or study breaks
- Maximize employer 401(k) matching and IRA contributions
- Avoid locking too much money in accounts with early withdrawal penalties if early retirement or career breaks are part of your plan
Estate Planning May Be More Fluid
Without children as natural beneficiaries, estate planning becomes more complex and personal. You have the freedom to direct your wealth exactly where you want it to go, including:
- Family members
- Close friends
- Charitable causes
This flexibility means detailed discussions and planning with your financial advisor around your values and relationships. Your legacy can reflect what mattered most to you, creating lasting impact.
Charitable Giving Through a Donor-Advised Fund
Charitable giving can offer powerful opportunities for childfree couples to create a meaningful legacy. A donor-advised fund may be an excellent vehicle for both current giving and long-term philanthropic planning.
When you establish a donor-advised fund, you receive an immediate tax deduction for your contribution and can recommend grants to qualified charities over time. This allows you to be strategic about your giving and supporting causes as they evolve and new needs arise in your community.
The beauty of a donor-advised fund lies in its longevity and flexibility.
- You can name a successor donor, such as trusted friends, family members, or Dunham Trust, to continue making grant recommendations after you pass away. This means your charitable legacy can continue for decades. Your donor-advised fund becomes what could be a permanent endowment, in your name, that keeps giving long after you have passed away.
Combining a Charitable Remainder Trust with a Donor-Advised Fund
For those with highly appreciated assets like stocks or real estate, a Charitable Remainder Trust offers another interesting strategy. This approach allows you to transfer appreciated assets to the trust, receive an immediate charitable tax deduction, and then receive income payments from the trust, potentially for your lifetime.
When you pass away, the remaining assets go to charity. You can name your donor-advised fund as the remainder beneficiary, creating a powerful combination that provides the possibility of lifetime income while building a substantial charitable legacy.
Along with an immediate tax deduction, this strategy also helps you avoid capital gains taxes on appreciated assets at the point of sale, making it particularly valuable for child-free individuals who may have accumulated significant investment gains over time.
Using The Deductions for a Roth Conversion
Both the donor-advised fund and the Charitable Remainder Trust provide a charitable deduction for the child-free couple. While this deduction can be used for a variety of purposes, including enjoying the cash from the tax refund, you may also want to consider using these deductions for a Roth Conversion.
The Roth conversion can provide tax-free income compared to taxable RMDs from traditional IRAs. Deductions from the donor-advised fund and the Charitable Remainder Trust could create what is essentially a “tax-free” Roth conversion by using them for a partial or full Roth IRA conversion. The amount that can be converted without extra income tax is based on the amount of deductions and the IRS rules for charitable deductions.
The Roth conversion and the tax savings may affect your taxes and lower your Medicare premiums.
Handling Your Affairs If You Become Unable To Do So Yourself
Estate planning for childfree individuals must also address the practical question of who will make decisions for you if you cannot do so yourself. Without adult children to naturally step into this role, you must carefully choose trusted friends or family members and clearly document your wishes for financial and healthcare decisions.
However, what happens when those trusted individuals are no longer available or able to serve? This is where professional successor trustee and estate settlement services become important for childfree individuals. Companies like Dunham Trust specialize in providing a safety net for those without children, offering services that bridge the gap when personal networks cannot fulfill these roles.
Dunham Trust can serve as both a successor trustee for your financial affairs and provide comprehensive estate settlement services when you pass away. As a successor trustee, they step in to manage your financial accounts, pay your bills, oversee investments, and handle all the administrative tasks that adult children might typically manage during a parent's incapacity.
Their professional staff understands the unique challenges faced by childfree individuals. It can coordinate with your healthcare providers, attorneys, and other professionals to ensure your wishes are exactly as you intended.
Beyond trustee services, Dunham also offers quality of life services that can make an enormous difference in your day-to-day well-being as you age. These services might include coordinating home healthcare, managing household staff, overseeing property maintenance, handling insurance claims, or even something as simple as ensuring your pets are cared for. They serve as your advocate and point person, handling the countless details that can become overwhelming when you do not have family members nearby to help.
The peace of mind from knowing you have a professional safety net cannot be overstated. While you hope your chosen friends and family members will always be there for you, having Dunham Trust as a backup ensures that someone will always be available to step in and manage your affairs with the same care and attention to detail that you would expect from a loving child.
This professional support system allows you to age with dignity and confidence, knowing that every aspect of your life and legacy will be handled according to your wishes.
Avoiding Common Planning Mistakes
- Do not overspend simply because you do not have children
- Use disposable income to build wealth more aggressively
- Review and update financial plans regularly with your advisor
- Update beneficiaries, contacts, and financial strategies as circumstances change
Closing Thoughts
If you are ready to create a financial plan that reflects your childfree or childless lifestyle, start by thinking clearly about your goals and values.
What would your life look like in ten, twenty, or thirty years? How important is early retirement versus career flexibility? Do you want to support charitable causes or help family members?
Once you have a vision for your future, you can work with your financial advisor to build the financial strategies to make it happen. Consider working with financial professionals who understand the unique opportunities and challenges of childfree and childless planning. With the right financial team, you can build a financial life that gives you incredible freedom, security, and the ability to make a meaningful impact on the causes and people you care about most.
Sources:
- Key planning considerations for child-free clients, by The Journal of Accountancy, May 24, 2024, https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2024/may/key-planning-considerations-for-childfree-clients/
Disclosures:
This communication is general in nature and provided for educational and informational purposes only. It should not be considered or relied upon as legal, tax or investment advice or an investment recommendation, or as a substitute for legal or tax counsel. Any investment products or services named herein are for illustrative purposes only, and should not be considered an offer to buy or sell, or an investment recommendation for, any specific security, strategy or investment product or service. Always consult a qualified professional or your own independent financial professional for personalized advice or investment recommendations tailored to your specific goals, individual situation, and risk tolerance.
Information contained in the materials included is believed to be from reliable sources, but no representations or guarantees are made as to the accuracy or completeness of information.
Dunham & Associates Investment Counsel, Inc. is a Registered Investment Adviser and Broker/Dealer. Member FINRA / SIPC. Advisory services and securities offered through Dunham & Associates Investment Counsel, Inc. Trust services offered through Dunham Trust Company, an affiliated Nevada Trust Company.