Around 62% of people admitted they did not have a will, rising to 70% among people who had children aged under 18, according to professional advice website Unbiased.co.uk. The group warned that this could leave many children vulnerable, as under current laws, children who are not named in a will are only entitled to an inheritance if there is no surviving spouse or an estate is worth more than £250,000.

If people die without a will, meaning they are intestate, their assets are divided up in a strict order, and if no-one comes forward to claim their estate it goes to the crown. Not having a will could also lead to inheritance tax being due before an estate is released, meaning family members may have to take out a loan to pay the tax bill in order to get the assets they are due.The high number of people without a will is despite the fact that 92% of those questioned said they had a clear idea of how they wanted their assets to be divided up when they died.

More than half of people without a will said they would like to leave some assets to their children, and 69% said they would like to leave something to another relative. Three-quarters of people who were married said they wanted to leave everything to their spouse, but under the current intestate rules they would receive only the first £250,000 automatically.

Four out of 10 people who were not married said they would like to leave their assets to their partner, but unmarried couples have no right to an inheritance if there is no will in place.Unsurprisingly, young people were the least likely to have written a will with 87% of under 35s not having one. But 36% of people aged over 55 still did not have a will in place.Apathy was the main reason people gave for not having a will, with 36% saying they had not got around to writing one, while 18% said they did not think they had anything to leave behind and 8% admitted it had simply not occurred to them to get one.

One in 10 people said they were worried about the costs involved, despite the fact that making a will costs only around £120 for someone who is single and £200 for a couple. Karen Barrett, chief executive of Unbiased.co.uk, said: ‘Thinking about the possibility of something bad happening to you is never an easy topic but nevertheless, it is hugely important. ‘Our research clearly shows that the nation is gripped by wills apathy, leaving a large proportion of spouses, partners and children unprotected should anything happen to a partner or parent.’ Opinium Research questioned 2,017 people during September.

Source – Daily Mail 23rd October 2010

But what about the many “tens of thousands of people” who die intestate each year? The Law Commission quote this figure as background to their current review of the law of intestacy. They add: “National Consumer Council research suggests that more than 27 million adults in England and Wales do not have a Will and that those who need one most are the least likely to have one…nearly one quarter of 55 to 64 year-olds have personal experience of the human and economic costs associated with intestacy or know someone who has.

“The problems caused range from inconvenience, to serious hardship or distress. Equally, applications under the family provision legislation can be expensive, and damaging to family relationships.”

Be Safe and use Certainty to register a will on the UK’s National Will Register.

Making a will is a lot easier than you think for the majority of us. After all the majority of us when it comes to making a will only have ourselves and our family to think about. There are various ways to make a will. You can make a DIY will or visit an unregulated will writer or use your local solicitor.

After reading various nightmare stories on the first two options, I decided to go down the solicitor route and was pleasantly surprised at the cost as I thought it would be an expensive process but I was totally wrong. I now have all my affairs in order and it cost just under a hundred pounds to make the will.

All I had to do was visit a solicitor who asked me some relatively straight forward questions that were very simple to answer and in a couple of days a copy of the will was forwarded to me and the original was held at the solicitor’s office where I made the will. Making a will turned out to be a simple process and one that has given me great peace of mind and I actually feel relieved that I have now done it as oppose to putting it off.

I think I put if off thinking it was going to bring me a little closer to the grave which I think is what the rest of the population also believe to be true!

Certainty.co.uk make finding wills simple.

Be Safe and use Certainty to register a will on the UK’s National Will Register.

I’ve been married four times and have 6 children. I clearly remember making a will when I married my first wife. When we separated and I remarried and had my second child with my second wife I thought about making a will again for some time and eventually got around to doing it but it then occurred to me what would happen if my first wife had kept a copy of my first will from my previous marriage? So I spoke to the solicitor who said that my new will would supersede my old will however I should contact my original solicitor who holds the original will to destroy the original first will.

After a short time of being married to my second wife we split up and eventually got divorced and when I re-married I had to make again another will again with a different solicitor because the former solicitor was acting on behalf of my wife. Sadly my third wife passed on after 5 happy years of marriage and 2 children. We had made mirror wills so I did not need to do anything with the will. I have recently remarried and thinking of making a will and have had to back-track to ensure that previous wills are not discovered to ensure that my children receive the benefits I wish for them to receive.

Be Safe and use Certainty to register a will on the UK’s National Will Register.

Why do over two thirds of us die without ever making a Will? Maybe the thought of dying is something most of us would rather not think about.

I recently heard on my local BBC radio station that whether you are well off or just an average ‘Joe’ you should have a Will, in fact the comment was, ‘can you afford not to?. I didn’t realise the amount of distress not having a Will could cause, and then again I didn’t realise that being able to find the Will was equally as important – obvious really!

Can I afford not to? Well maybe not when I look at the potential ramifications if I haven’t written my Will. I need now to bear in mind that I have a perception that this vital document will cost me an untold amount of money to write, again another misconception. I have trawled 3 local solicitors in my area which I found via Certainty.co.uk and have come back with an average cost for my particular circumstances of £120 plus a small charge to write and register my Will.

Making a Will in short enables me to decide exactly what is to happen to my estate on my death. Without a Will the intestacy rules apply which can lead to big problems when you’re 6ft under.

I have pondered on who should be my executors, maybe for too long, it’s relatively simple, it’s a relative! I have pondered on how I mitigate my tax liability through making a Will, if it’s not clear now it may never be so I need to take advice, but much more importantly just write my Will. Mitigation is one thing but a big loss to the taxman is totally different because I don’t have a Will.

I suppose removing the dreadful thought that I’m not here forever and knowing that by making a Will I’m taking care of my loved ones is key to me now. When I then consider it’s an hour or two of my time and £120 or so then more fool me for not making my Will sooner.

Be Safe and use Certainty to register a will on the UK’s National Will Register.