Dear LPG,

This is not a subject that people really want to talk about but it does need addressing, and while we older people should have it all in place by now, statistics show that many of us have not. 

I have noticed that a few of your LPG writers have offered readers a reminder on the subject of writing a will, and one such reminder (►►►) provoked me to put pen to paper.  I have had a good think about what I want who to have, in terms of my money and things of intrinsic value, and I don’t have much so when I got started, I found that part of the process straight forward. 

But I found the big problem for me was working out who I was going to trust with sorting it all out when I am gone.  It is a pretty morbid conversation to have with anyone, but the person, or people, you want to nominate really need to know that you plan to do that, and it is best if they agree to take it on to start with, and you also have to think about what happens if they go before you do.  Safety in numbers was my thought but finding one person is hard enough and that was just the tip of the iceberg.   Racking my brain on the subject got me wondering if I am a typical man of my age because, I live alone,  some of my children don’t talk to others so I can see the pitfalls of choosing one, some or all of them, I am not sure I have enough of an estate to involve a professional executor and, now that I have had time to think about it, I am not sure that I have many friends that I would trust or who would even want to be an executor for me.

The other thing I learnt is how important it is to keep a note of what you have and what you owe up to date to make it easier for whoever takes the job on.  There is no room for sentiment when it comes to not wanting to let them know what they are in for if they decide to take it on and some notes for them to read when it all kicks off are a good idea.  

Although much of the information has been written by legal companies trying to attract business and some comes from abroad, I took a look online and found lots of advice. So, if there are any readers who are at the beginning of their will-writing journey, I would like to pass on what I have learned so far.

OG, Lewisham.

OG offers what he learnt…

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