We’ll always ask you when we meet whether you a) have a will and b) if it’s up to date and when you last looked at it. It’s often those with the most complicated family and personal situations, or those without family, who are likely to have avoided the issue and need to get something in place. The 10,000 or so wills which are disputed and get to the courts are a very small proportion of the yearly total, but this excludes those who haven’t thought it through and leave siblings to never speak again or legal bills which dwarf the few hundred that getting a proper will in place might have cost. And I do emphasise a proper will. There are plenty who will offer you a cheap will-writing service (will writers who will then upsell you to complex lifetime trusts, don’t get me started) and there is, of course, the DIY joy of the internet. We have no vested interest, we don’t offer wills and get no back-handers from solicitors for pointing you in their right direction. But we do, sadly, see the turmoil when there’s no, or a less-than-thought-through will. For better or worse, every family is complicated in its own way. So don’t leave it more so when you’ve gone.
“Pensions minister: ‘we have created saving pots, but not a pension system’”
The OBR (Office of Budget Responsibility, as opposed to the OBI, often said to be housed in No.11) said this week that pensions were one of the biggest problems to be faced by this and future governments.
