It’s Make a Will Month - Will you?
For the second year running, a firm of solicitors has labelled July ‘Make a Will Month’, and as part of the media coverage surrounding this, a shocking statistic (shocking not because it’s almost certainly true, but because the figure does not seem to change year-on-year) is being bandied about (for example BBC Radio 2, The Chris Evans Show, 01/07/08,) that suggests that two-thirds of people die without making a Will, leaving a good proportion of their assets at the mercy of Her Majesty’s Treasury. It’s surely no coincidence that in the same month, the second series of the BBC show ‘Heir Hunters’ is being broadcast, which follows the efforts of a team of probate detectives who attempt to track down previously unknown family members who may have left unassigned assets.
There is an underlying theme here: A Will is clearly an essential document for anyone who cares about their descendants, yet evidently they are not being created in the majority of circumstances. Why is this?
The Radio programme went on to cite the two key reasons normally provided by the British public for not making a Will as the expense of using solicitors and the time and hassle associated with visiting them. This comes as no surprise to us; these are the two compelling factors that underpin the design of services like MyLawyer and Desktop Lawyer, and explain the demand for them. Chris Evans, the programme presenter, suggested that people could potentially use DIY Wills purchased from high street retailers such as WHSmith, and the solicitor interviewed on-air for the piece suggested that this kind of product was over simplistic. That may well be the case in some circumstances, but not in all – and of course Epoq’s MyLawyer and Desktop Lawyer services offer a range of options for professional legal review, which can take that first draft of a Will and have it tailored for each customers unique circumstances.
What is clear, particularly in difficult financial circumstances, is that the need for people to create a Will has never been greater. As you might expect from a company whose products serve this market, Epoq fully support the “Make a Will Month” campaign – and would suggest that whatever level of financial planning you choose to undertake, it’s better than doing nothing….