Without a Will
*A recent study by a market leading technology platform has revealed that 78% of UK adults aged 34-54 have not made a will. This alarming number shows that an age group who are statistically more likely to have dependents and other financial commitments such as mortgages, are prepared to leave themselves at risk of dying intestate.
At present, 31 million adults in the UK risk their entire estate being distributed by the laws of intestacy upon death. This may not necessarily reflect on their true wishes as certain loved ones and other members of their family may not receive any of the estate whatsoever. For example, where the deceased is survived by the spouse and child – only they inherit. Although this may not seem an issue at first, the split may be wholly disproportionate and disputably biased towards the child.
Furthermore, the effect of a second marriage on dying without a will can also be significant. Should the deceased leave a relatively small estate, the wife of the second marriage would take the majority leaving any children from a previous marriage potentially no inheritance whatsoever.
These are some of the main reasons for people not having a will:
- Procrastination (26%)
- Not enough assets to make a will worthwhile (>20%)
- Cost of writing a will (11%)
However, the benefits of having a will such as making the inheritance process quicker and helping to ease the burden of losing a loved one should not be ignored!
Sitting down with a qualified solicitor can ensure all of your wishes are dealt with and it is something we would always strongly recommend. However, many people are put off by the monetary cost or amount of time they will need to invest. As such, we have teamed up with an online wills service through ‘Private Client Online’ to try and ensure less people are left without Wills and there are as few barriers as possible.
The cost of this service is £69 for a single Will or £99 for a pair. The Wills are drafted and finalised by qualified solicitors and there is also an option for secure Wills storage.
If you would like to draft your Wills today then please follow the link below:
Disclosure: as part of our relationship with Private Client Online, Future Asset Management would receive an introduction fee of 20% of the Will cost.
*Data from Unbiased, October 2017.