Clients are often ignoring the advice they have received when making a will, according to research from Canada Life.
The company spoke with 201 financial advisers in the UK, with 69 per cent of them saying that some or all of the advice they offered clients had been ignored when the client came to write a will, with only 8 per cent saying all their advice had been followed.
Canada Life said if advisers were to collaborate more widely with solicitors and accountants this problem could be helped.
Neil Jones, tax and wealth specialist at Canada Life, said: “There’s a historic disconnect between the key players when it comes to estate planning.
"Solicitors, accountants and advisers all play important roles, but they often don’t come together at the crucial moment.
"Unfortunately, it’s often the advisers’ work that is left out in the cold and this could be to the detriment of the beneficiaries."
He added: “Obviously questions around trusts, gifting and annual tax-free allowances are areas where anyone writing a will should be listening to the financial experts.
"But the problems don’t even need to be that complex to need an adviser. Usually the adviser simply has a better grasp than anyone else of where the assets are, their tax status and the impact of any gifting.”
Ricky Chan, chartered financial planner at IFS Wealth and Pensions, said: “Generally speaking clients take our advice in drafting their wills but often it takes a few times of asking (usually through the course of our annual reviews), probably due to inertia bias."
He also said often clients don’t draft wills because they were superstitious about “tempting fate” if they do, or they were young and thinking "they won’t suffer premature death".
Some may not be sure how they wish to distribute their estate yet - they may not have anyone they’d like to leave assets to yet, he said.
Mr Chan added: "The challenge is to ensure that clients are aware of the implications of dying without a will (e.g. the laws of intestacy, so their estate could be distributed contrary to their wishes and the delays in probate) and to encourage them to 'get off the fence' and make a decision – one way I’ve found useful is to let them know that their wills are not set in stone, so it’s just a start and they can always build on it/update it in future.”
david.thorpe@ft.com
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