Learning about how your state handles estate planning is a great starting point to gaining a better understanding of why it is important. Conveniently, the State Bar of California has a wealth of information to serve the general public on a variety of legal topics topics. Here's the page for free legal information.
If you go to that page, you will see that 3 of the 12 guides is about estate planning, which just goes to show you how important the topic is. They include the following guides:
Having an understanding of why estate planning is important for everyone--young or old; poor or wealthy--is super important, and one of the best starting points if you're on the fence about getting started.