Probate news: People uninformed about parents' wills

New research has suggested that people are unaware of wills and probate matters when it comes to their parents' estates.

A study by National Savings and Investments (NS&I) found that 36 per cent of those questioned were clueless as to how their mother and father would divide up their estate and if they had decided to make a will.

In addition, over two-fifths of participants were unaware of where important documents were stored by their parents.

Tim Mack, a spokesperson for NS&I said: "Later life financial planning is an important issue which affects everyone. It might be a sensitive subject, but every member of a family should try and encourage the others to sit down together and talk about this openly."

One-quarter of the people questioned also said that they were banking on being helped in the future by their inheritance.

In addition, the importance of not putting off making a will and informing its beneficiaries of its contents was shown last year in a dispute over the estate of Malcolm McLaren, founder of the Sex Pistols. Mr McLaren's son argued that his father was not sufficiently well to make decisions that affected probate before he died.