According to Octopus over 80% of people said that having no probate help affected their ability to work.
On average family members spent hours on the phone dealing with banks, pension providers, life companies, local authorities, utility companies, HMRC etc. Most did this whilst still working but 40% said that they had to take time off work or reduce their hours to deal with the process. Over 50% said that they would have appreciated some probate help from their employers. Luckily, we are on hand to help our clients’ families with probate when the time comes. But only 10% of families have a financial advisor as we know.
Then there are the issues with delays in the grant of probate. Grants taking up to 24 months have increased over 120% in the last five years. The number of legal probate disputes have also increased by over 30%.
Get a Will
In order to provide help in the first place, it’s important to have a Will in place. Without one the process becomes much more complicated.
But according to Zurich just under half of people in the UK currently have a valid Will. This is despite the fact that 80% of people worry about how their loved ones will cope with their finances after they die.
Make sure you’ve put Lasting Powers of Attorney in place.
It’s not only a Will that’s important. Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPA’s) are just as important for circumstance where a loved one loses capacity. Especially for financial matters. More and more disputes over Wills and Estates arise because no one has been appointed to take control of finances.
Overall, only 11% of people have an LPA in place which is nowhere near enough.
Inheritance Tax administration an issue.
Dealing with Inheritance Tax (IHT) is already an issue for an increasing number of estates, which only going to get worse next year when pensions become part of the IHT calculations. According to Investec 20% of retirees are worried about paying Inheritance Tax. 15% say that they are actively spending more money to reduce their IHT liabilities and 25% say they are gifting money to their families. With good reason as IHT is expected to increase from £9 billion to 315 billion in2030.
HMRC reports that charitable gifts have helped some estates reduce their IHT liabilities by over £1 billion. That’s because leaving 10% to charity reduces IHT rates on the remaining estate to 36% from 40%.
Help for older customers also in short supply.
Many advisors have reported recently that older clients are finding it harder and harder to deal with financial product providers. One of the big reasons is that many have moved to online Apps as the only way to access account information and assistance. This leaves people with smart phones at a serious disadvantage. Many of these are older and could be classed as vulnerable customers. But despite this being a key part of the Consumer Duty requirements for firms, many are choosing to ignore the effects of their tech solutions at the expense of customers experiences.
I saw this recently in a major high street bank where a clearly vulnerable customer asked for help opening a new account. Only to be told that it could only be done through the App and that they couldn’t help.
This is an area that the FCA should be looking into more critically.
It is symptomatic of the general decline in the standards of customer service.
AI wrong most of the time
AI is not the solution either. Research by Saturn found that AI gave the wrong answers to financial questions in more than 50% of cases. When it came to more complicated financial questions, some of the AI models were wrong in 99% of cases. The most accurate model tested was Claude Opus 5.
Get more information.
If you would like some probate help, then why not contact Christina today. We offer a free initial meeting to discuss your requirements and explain how our service works. You are under no obligation to use us after that if you don’t want to and we won’t pester you.
So why not call us today on 01282 614444 or e mail us enquiries@ccfps.co.uk or use our contact form online.
Or if you’d prefer to think about it some more, why not have a look at our Facebook page, our Vouched For page, or our Testimonials page to see what our customers think about us.
