We all appreciate the importance of insuring ourselves against the catastrophic events of life, or at least we should do. Hopefully most of us will insure our mortgages so that in the event of us dieing we will not leave an unmanageable Burdon for our loved ones. Or insure our lives so that any surviving spouse can continue to bring up the children without financial hardship, most of us even insure our mobile phones in case we lose this , now seemingly “cant do without” piece of technology.
Why then do some 80% of us die without ever having put in place the most critical piece , and probably the cheapest form of insurance available to us. Yes I am talking about our wills.
Is it because there is a tendency to “immortality” within us, a “ it will never happen to me “ attitude ?
In my opinion its because people are just not educated in this area. I ask you, would you take everything you own, and I mean everything House, car, chattels etc etc and go down your local betting shop and place it all on 4/1 shot ? No obviously not, but by not having a will this is exactly what the vast majority of us are doing.
Lets look at some facts shall we:-
Unmarried couples do not have any automatic right to inherit anything.
Married couples only have an automatic right to inherit if there is a will.
Couples with children who do not nominate guardians in a will risk having the courts decide on who will look after the kids.
By the age of 80 over 70% of us will need some form of long term care.
More than 70,000 people each year have to sell their homes to fund long term care.
Wills are so much more than just a document that states what you have and to whom you wish to leave it to, they are there to ensure that when the day comes you actually have anything left to leave, sadly many intended beneficiaries never actually benefit because either no will or an in-appropriate will was written.
So Why no education ? Should our friends at the inland revenue be responsible ? Well when you consider the billions coming through the coffers every year in inheritance tax charges you can understand perhaps why this particular body of people are keeping their heads down.
What about local authorities ? Once again when you consider that a will can protect your home against long term care fees, that they would otherwise take from your capital its no surprise that no help in this area is forthcoming here either.
People once again it is up to us to research and find out this information for ourselves because no official body of people will come rushing to our aid here.
don’t ignore what is perhaps one of the most important and powerful legal documents you could ever write.
Ian Vincent AIPW
Source: http://www.ArticlePros.com/author.php?Ian Vincent
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