Women need to take end-of-life planning more seriously, and getting these things sorted is better sooner rather than later, a senior estate planner has said.
Natasha Jones, senior estate planner for Kinherit, said there were too many "dangers" if people did not have appropriate planning in place.
While women tend to be "great planners", too many of them make assumptions about who will look after their families or their businesses if they were to die suddenly.
Speaking on the latest FTAdviser In Focus fireside chat, Jones listed several "dangers" when it came to neglecting later-life planning.
She said: "Unfortunately, if you don't have the planning in place, the assets might not go to the people you want it to. Also, guardianship for children is not always automatic.
"If you have property or business assets, sometimes you might be eligible for business property relief and, if this is not properly drafted into your legal documents, you will effectively waste some of that relief.
"And you can potentially end up paying more tax and, of course, the probate process is that much slower."
She said it all "falls back to peace of mind".
According to Jones: "Too many people think 'it won't happen to me', or that wills and trusts and estate planning is just for the small minority of 1 per cent of people. That is not the case.
"You need to think about it if you have children, for example, you would want to think about who will be the guardian for them. If you have a business or property assets, you need to be getting that sorted sooner rather than later.
"If anything did happen out of the blue, you have these things in place."
She added: "For one, I would want to have peace of mind about who will look after my pets – and believe you me, I have plenty of them – it is about giving you peace of mind that what you want to happen, will happen."
To watch the full Fireside Chat, click on the link above.
simoney.kyriakou@ft.com
