When writing a will is not enough. Dan Godsall reports
According to the latest statistics from the Office for National Statistics, 492,207 people in England and Wales die each year. Of these, 295,324 or roughly 60% die intestate, prolonging the process of settling estates and adding further strain to the bereaved.
The laws of intestacy provide solicitors with the legal framework for the fair distribution of an intestate estate. However, the law can’t ensure that the final distribution of an estate accords with the wishes of the deceased. And there appears to be reasonable anecdotal evidence to suggest that honouring the last wishes of our loved ones is indeed an important consideration because it enables us to have “closure”.
The story of Guinness World Record-holder and international Memory Grandmaster, David Thomas, among whose prodigious achievements is recalling Pi to 22,500 digits, is not uncommon. In June 2010 David’s grandmother died intestate. He and his family were able to sort out her estate, but they still needed a will for his grandfather—with whom the family had lost touch some years earlier—in order to settle one element
