Wills ‘are the easiest way to see your wishes put into effect’

Posted 03/03/2010

Making a proper Will is the best way to ensure that your estate will pass on to the relatives or friends you want it to.

This is the advice of financial expert Margaret Stone in a reply to a reader query in the Daily Mail.

The correspondent had asked whether, as a single, elderly man with no children, he could guarantee that his inheritance would go to his sister and not his nieces and nephews upon his death.

Ms Stone said that as long as there is a Will in place, assets can be left to anyone the deceased chooses.

“However, if you die without making a Will, the rules of intestacy kick in and the state chooses who gets what,” she pointed out.

The best way to avoid this is by seeking solicitors who can draw up a Will for you.

In November 2009, Vincent Duggleby said on BBC Radio 4’s Moneybox Live programme that he was surprised that as many as 60 per cent of Britons do not have a valid Will.