This month unbiased.co.uk’s research established that 58% of the adult population still do not have a Will.*
There were various regional variations as we can see below:
| Region | With a will | Without a will |
| South East | 49% | 49% |
| East of England | 46% | 53% |
| Yorks & Humber | 44% | 55% |
| West Midlands | 42% | 58% |
| South West | 41% | 58% |
| London | 40% | 60% |
| Scotland | 40% | 60% |
| East Midlands | 39% | 60% |
| North West | 38% | 61% |
| Wales | 38% | 60% |
| Northern Ireland | 32% | 65% |
| North East | 30% | 70% |
The table shows the % of UK adults with/without a will by region – not all figures add up to 100% as consumers also had the option to tick ‘I don’t know if I have a will’.
Whatever the variations in region it is, across the country, a sorry state of affairs.
Why is it that people are unwilling to protect everything they have worked so hard for and protect those that they care most about?
“Despite this lack of planning, 74% of UK adults said they would like to pass on money (with an average value of £45,000) to their loved ones when they pass away, while 56% of people said that they wish to leave assets like jewellery and paintings to loved ones. The survey revealed that 65% plan to leave property worth an average of £199,000.
The research showed that children and grandchildren continue to be the main beneficiaries of wills, with 36% of UK adults wanting to leave enough money to fund some aspect of their child or grandchild’s future. With tuition fees rising, 13% said they would like to fund their child or grandchild through university, and 22% would like to boost their child or grandchild’s savings. Charities and pets also stand to benefit with 8% of UK adults wishing to donate a significant amount to charity and 7% of people wanting to leave enough money for their pets to live comfortably after they have gone. Yet without a will in place all these beneficiaries stand to receive nothing.”
For some reason, people think their husband or wife will inherit and that is that. – Unfortunately this is not going to happen in the majority of cases.
A substantial part of your estate would be tied up in expensive and inconvenient statutory Trusts (Trust automatically set up under the Rules of Intestacy when there is no valid Will found). If you are co-habiting things are even worse! You will get NOTHING – unless you sue for it and win (at vast expense).
Most importantly for those with young children you will not even have a say in deciding who should look after your offspring, leaving that responsibility to Social Services and the Courts.
The reasons people avoiding making a Will are many and varied but in our experience once the customer has made a decision to proceed it is a quick and painless process.
I have lost count of the amount of clients that after a week or two have their professionally prepared Will in their hand all signed and witnessed and turn to me and say;
“That was a lot easier than I thought. I wish I’d done it years ago”.
Our on-going annual contact also means that the Will stays up to date. Often, if there are only small changes to be carried out these can be overcome with a codicil which costs only a few pounds.
So rather than putting it in the “to do” pile why not pick up the phone or fill in our contact form today. Once you have taken the first step the rest is easy.
* Opinium Research carried out an online poll of 2009 UK adults from 28th September – 1st October 2012. UK 18+ population estimate 49,969,000 according to ONS Mid-2011 Census data. (1160 of 2009 did not have a will. 1160/2009 = .5774).5774*49,969,000 = 28,852,185 or approximately 29 million.