Last year the Treasury gained £53 million from people who died intestate (without making a will).   Only three out of 10 people in the UK have a will.  So why are the majority of us not making a will? We looked at Lucy Townsend’s report for the BBC to see her conclusions.

In this day and age when second and even third marriages are commonplace and couples live together or have children without marrying, it is essential that you should make a will to protect your family from losing out on an inheritance and reduce the risk of financial problems.  We appear to be burying our heads in the sand rather than face up to the thought of dying.  Lucy believes it is our fear of dying that stops us making a will. It is some kind of bad omen.

 

It is true that wills are a form of legal precedent that have been used for many years and so the language used can be daunting for the average lay person, it is this along with having to think about their affairs after they have died that can prove to be too just stressful for some.

However will precedents have improved and it is a solicitor’s role to explain what things mean in plain English so that clients clearly understand.  More importantly self written wills or will templates via the internet or shop are often totally invalid. A will signed by just one witness will be invalid.  Another problem is where beneficiaries are also witnesses as then they cannot inherit.

Most wills are not complicated and so for many of us it is easier to make a will than you think.  However today family situations are more complicated; for example where there are children from each spouse’s different marriages or relationships it is more complicated to decide who receives what.  In these circumstances it is more important than ever to make sure you obtain correct professional advice so your families do not lose out.  This is even more fraught with difficulty if the parties are not married.  In some cases when a partner dies intestate, parents have been forced to effectively sue their own children just so they have enough cash to live.

In her report Lucy mentions several cases of people dying intestate that have had devastating effects on a family.  One such case is Richard who died suddenly and was unmarried.  His estate was shared equally between his surviving parents.  His father had played no part in his upbringing after being divorced from his mother but accepted his full entitlement.  It was the responsibility of Richard’s mother to trace his father and pay all the legal expenses and the costs in tracking him down.  She had to sell all her son’s assets including DVD’s & CD’s to give half his money to a stranger who had never sent his son so much as a birthday card.  Despite this and other horror stories, including orphaned children being cared for by a virtual stranger rather than friends of the family they know, people still appear reluctant to make a will.

For more information on making a will please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  The sooner you make and sign your last will and testament the sooner you can concentrate on living.  As Lucy says “Maybe it is not such a big deal after all”.