This week I happened to be browsing the Office of National Statistics website (!!) and I came across stats on death. Now I know that this isn’t cheery, but I did find it interesting and it prompted this blog.

Reality of death

So what I found interesting is that last year 5.7% of all women that died were under 50 and 9.2% of all men that died were under 50. Initially I was really shocked by this figure, I really thought it would be higher. But the difference between men and women is really interesting to me. Do men just take lots more risks? Have worse health?

This led me to thinking about the summer of 2015. That summer I sadly had 3 clients die. All of them had partners, two had kids and only one of them was tip top organised.

The “When I’m dead” File

So do you have a “When I Am Dead” file? This is usually something that most people put off until “they are older” and then it becomes a job that doesn’t happen.

Here are the things to put in it:

  1. A summary of your life insurances – which provider they are with and how much would pay out. Make it easy and at the contact details. If you have written the policies in trust, have a copy of the trust in the file too
  2. Details of any life cover that you have at work – add the amount and the contact details of the HR person/phone number at work who would help with the payout
  3. Summary of all assets & debts including pensions, investments etc. – inset a copy of your financial summary that you can download from the Miss Lolly website if you need a copy.
  4. A copy of your will and the solicitor’s contact details
  5. The contact details of your financial adviser, if you have one

Reality vs Virtual Reality

Something else to consider is that recently solicitors have started to talk a lot about your digital footprint on your death. According to UK Report in 2016, a typical internet user has more than 100 separate online accounts – think about how many social media, online banking and shops you have logins to. The study also identified that this would double by 2020!

Now some of these will be classed as digital assets and will form part of your estate when you die so it is vital that executors of your estate are able to gain access to these assets too. Examples of digital assets are online bank accounts, purchase sites (PayPal) and Amazon/EBay etc.

Solicitors that I have spoken to say that the UK law needs to catch up with our needs when it comes to digital assets as each website will have different rules that the executors will have to trawl through. To make their job a little easier, make sure that all digital assets are mentioned in your deal file.

Sorry it’s not a cheery one this week, but it is an essential and I know I am pleased to have mine done.

Lots of Love

Miss Lolly xx