6O% of Britons die leaving less than £5000

[Miljah]

....I've just read in 'The Week'. Credited to The London School of Economics.

That surprises me; I would have thought it would be more cash or fewer people.

Do you feel that figure seems 'about right'?

No, even if we died without money in the bank, the value of the house means we wouldn't.

We can't be the only ones.

Does it take into account property or is it just savings? I would have thought people would have more to leave, unless they've spent it all enjoying themselves.

I was stunned by this - it's reflective of the deceased's entire estate and I though homeownership was higher than 60%

It doesn’t surprise me. I hadn’t thought about it but judging by the things I hear volunteering it strikes me as about right.

Does it include property or just physical cash in the bank?

Doesn't surprise me at all but I'm a low earner as is everyone I know and none of us have much money.

According to this article, home ownership was 65% in 2017 in the UK

tradingeconomics.com/united-kingdom/home-ownership-rate

So how can that £5000 figure be right? Most homeowners are not currently in negative equity, are they?

Doesn’t seem right, like pp asked , I’d that just cash in the bank ?

The statistic must take into consideration assets against liabilities. So £5k in the bank and £20k paid off the mortgage but £23k in debt?

It seems off. Just sold MIL's house, which had bog all equity in it, after she took out a cash release about 10 years ago. We still got more than that from that and a million tiny little over 50s plans she'd taken out.

Property is often sold to pay for care, so those in care won't have much left.
We tend not to look after our old relatives ourselves, like we did in the past, and inheritance is pretty non existent unless they were really rich or didn't need care.

Sounds way off. Can't include property.
But it would be good to give loads away to dc/gc and spend it before you die and only have £5000 left. Difficult to plan though.

I guess it makes sense, most people who die are old people, who probably have to sell there homes, and give up savings to pay for care.

So I guess another way of reading that stat old age care leaves you with less than £5k

I was just about to say that - although overall home ownership is probably 65%, I suspect it isn't across the eldest groups (where the majority of deaths are likely to be) as people try and either evade IHT, start equity release, or have to sell up in order to pay for care costs. Also, I imagine a proportion of the deceased will be quite young so they don't have much in the way of assets - particularly (for example) under 18s, who will, tragically, make up some of that statistic.

I'll be pissed off if I die leaving £5000.
My plan is to leave nothing.

Makes sense to me. My father retired at 63 and had fairly considerable pensions and savings. When he died 20 years later, most of that was gone because he had been living off it all that time. If he had needed to sell his home to pay for care then that would have been gone too, so the figure doesn't seem unreasonable to me.

*No, even if we died without money in the bank, the value of the house means we wouldn't.

We can't be the only ones.*

Both sets of my grandparents were home owners, in each case the home was sold and the cash used for care needs, they left almost nothing.

According to this article, home ownership was 65% in 2017 in the UK

So how can that £5000 figure be right? Most homeowners are not currently in negative equity, are they?

Care home costs and/or disposing of your assets while you're still alive.

Also houses owned jointly (assuming 'joint tenants' rather than 'tenants non common'), the contents of joint accounts don't form part of the estate. They automatically go to the co-owner

Why does it matter? If you're dead you're dead. Why does the amount of money you have left make any difference?

I have a lot of colleagues at work with parents in very expensive care homes, 1k a week etc just seems to be what it costs, and the houses are sold off to pay for the care.

I would hope to provide for my DC during the course of my life, and if my assets have to go on care at the end then so be it.

Also point above about the first one of a couple dying, their house not forming part of their estate.

Confused I kind of agree with you. My dad left a very substantial amount when he unexpectedly died and in a way I was shocked as he was really quite tight, and whilst I have certainly benefitted from my inheritance, I also feel really sad that if he had this much money why he didn't just, you know, stick the heating on a bit more?

My mum is making good inroads into it though, so that's something .

@ColeHawlins ah yes, that makes sense about equity release / paying for care and disposing of assets. My parents both died in their 60s so care homes were never something I had to think about. I foresee it coming up in future with the ILs though ...

OP I googled that statement in various forms (to check exactly what it included) and absolutely nothing else comes up for it other than this post which seems a bit suspicious - if the LSE went to the effort of doing it you think it would be disseminated a bit more.

Confusedfornow - um, because most people care about people other than themselves?
Just off the top of my head - from an individual perspective people might be interested because they are worried about their own level of debt/how much money there will be to leave to their children/do they have enough to pay for their funeral and other expenses or will it be a drain on those left behind?

From a wider perspective, depending on the parameters of the research it could be indicative of the level of debt in society, change from saving to a spending culture, lack of social mobility, poverty of the elderly...all of which should be of interest to us as a society

once it would make more sense then for them to arrange something like a trust or bond or whatever when they are alive. DM has set aside lump sums for her GC, so what's left or not left when she pops won't affect them.

It’s relevant to discuss because the Daily Mail etc have whipped up a