Let us start with a basic premise.
We cannot think of a single, sensible, reason anyone in the UK should not have a Will.
Everyone should have a Will.
And preferably a Will that is drawn up to ensure all your wishes and affairs are tied together to create not only the outcome you have identified during your lifetime, but also one that helps your loved ones sort out your Estate in an efficient manner.
The thing about this subject, the elephant in the room, if you like, is that it is not as if there is any doubt, everyone is going to die. Thankfully, we just do not know when.
There is no negotiation around this. So, given that certainty some of the statistics around Wills in the UK are quite disturbing.
Research carried out in 2019 by Royal London, YouGov, IRN Research and Orchard included these findings:
- 5.4 million adults do not know where to begin when it comes to writing a Will.
- Around 54% of adults do not have a Will.
- Six in 10 (59%) parents do not have a Will or have one that is out of date.
It is a nailed-on certainty that at some point every individual’s Estate and their affairs will have to be sorted out, but despite this inevitability over half of all adults and parents do not even have a Will.
In part this may be down to not wanting to think about it (death etc.), in part down to thinking it may be a long way off, and then finally in part to an ignorance of how estates are dealt with on death.
The fact is that dying without a Will in place leaves a retched situation for loved ones, complicating matters at a fraught and upsetting time, quite apart from risking things not being dealt with in a financially efficient manner.
It is true that in most cases, where there is not a Will, loved ones will eventually get there and things will get sorted, but it can hellishly complicated and long-winded. And in some cases, they will not ‘get there.’
Putting a Will in place is one of the most basic financial planning decisions anyone can take, probably the number one thing on the list.
Trevor Downing FPMI FPFS
