Research by the Law Society showed that 7% of respondents had updated their will during the first coronavirus lockdown.
Whilst encouraging, one in fourteen people have arranged their affairs in this way, a more shocking statistic from this research showed that over half (59%) of those surveyed said they did not have a will at all.
Whilst some people may be well served by the rules of intestacy, which applies to anyone who dies without a will, there will be a number of people where these rules are inappropriate.
Examples include couples with children where the provisions of intestacy can see significant legacy going to children; this raises the question of how these compulsory legacies can be affordably funded, as well as the appropriateness of giving large legacies to younger people.
In addition to making wills, the coronavirus lockdown has shown the benefit of having lasting powers of attorney. These allow an individual (or individuals) to act on your behalf if you are unable to make decisions on your health and welfare, or financial decisions, due to mental incapacity, or, depending on the drafting, simply because you are unable to act for other reasons.
Coronavirus has highlighted to more people the effects of “disasters”. We specialise in planning for these types event and can show, for example, what your family might need if you were unable to do your work for reasons of illness or incapacity, suffer a critical illness, or if you were to die.
We employ sophisticated tools that allow us to highlight strategies for how these risks might be mitigated. We also have inheritance tax planning expertise, and members of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) within the firm who are able to help.
If you feel that your affairs are not sufficiently resilient we would be happy to have a discussion as to how we might help.
