Amy Kant initially thought she should name a power of attorney about 10 years ago after caring for a dying friend. She still hasn’t appointed someone to do it.
The 65-year-old is single with no children and bound up in that choice over who should make financial decisions on her behalf are other big questions that are often intensified when aging alone. How to handle eldercare? Estate planning? Where will she live in her later years?
Kant is among the millions of Americans learning to navigate aging alone. Roughly 10% of the more than 125 million adults ages 50 and older in the U.S., or at least 12.5 million people, are solo agers who live alone and have neither a spouse nor a child, according to an AARP analysis of census data. It’s a growing demographic hitting both genders, driven in part by climbing divorce rates among older Americans and a rising number of adult children becoming alienated from their parents.
Kant didn’t set out with a master plan. In her 20s and 30s, she chose lower-paying nonprofit jobs to give priority to her art. She remembers how friends envied her freedom; while they were tied down with dinner duty, their kids’ homework, and college savings, Kant spent her evenings painting and didn’t think twice about going out on weeknights.
She eventually earned her M.B.A. By her 40s, she was working as a fundraiser, maxing out traditional retirement account contributions to ensure her financial stability in later years.
When she transitioned to independent consulting for organizational development in her 50s and 60s, she used a solo 401(k), a retirement-savings vehicle for self-employed people.
In her 40s she considered adoption but ultimately decided against it. Then in her 50s, after her own mother died, she went through a period of regret that she had decided against single motherhood.
While Kant feels OK about her nest egg today, she’s worried it might shrink if the stock-market falls from its record high levels. Once she recuperates, she plans to return to part-time consulting to keep her mind active and feel productive.
When Kant first realized the importance of naming a power of attorney, she didn’t know whom to choose at the time and put off the decision. She only recently identified the right friend for the role after her illnesses made clear she needed to act.
Leaving assets to nonrelatives often requires planning with trusts. This might help to prevent distant biological relatives from contesting the wishes of the deceased, said Avi Kestenbaum, a partner at Meltzer, Lippe, Goldstein & Breitstone.
She has realized staying in her condo would be impractical, since it has stairs. She expects to profit from its eventual sale, since property values have soared since she bought it about 10 years ago. But selling her home means walking away from a 3.75% mortgage rate, and likely needing to move to a more affordable neighborhood. That means leaving behind her core social circle.
Kant has given herself a one-year deadline to complete her estate-planning documents. She is hoping she will have the mental energy needed to tackle such tasks once she is further along in her recovery.
For more information see Veronica Dagher “More Americans Are Aging Alone. One Woman Told Us What It’s Like.” The Wall Street Journal, May 30, 2026.