Why are there so many inheritance threads just now?

[ssd]

I've seen so many of them, why???

More people are dying?!

Well. Bit of a brutal answer, but 70,000 extra people have died because of Covid.

A lot of inheritance being dealt with I imagine.

Maybe cause more are dying 🤔

I don't think it's that simple, over the last couple of days there's been a lot more inheritance threads, it's very strange.

I thought the same tbh

Maybe it's because it's like buses, you wait forever for one than 3 turn up at once?
Or maybe it's more likely to do with the fact people aren't able to get out & mix with others & don't feel comfortable with FaceTime, Zoom, Houseparty etc so MN becomes the confessional?
I have noticed that the threads seem to be flying compared to this time last year.

Because there is a journalist who wants to write about the subject?

Whenever I see a little flurry of threads on a single topic, that is what I assume. And, within a couple of weeks, I then see newspaper or magazine articles on the same thing. Almost without fail.

Ok, so maybe it is a bit chicken and egg but there is definitely a link.

It's just because it jogs the brain of people who probably wouldn't have thought to post about it, but they see an active thread and feel prompted to post their own. MN often has topic 'clusters' like this.

Because the baby boomer generation are beginning to die? In the next 10-15 years there will be the greatest transfer of wealth in history. Up to £5.5 trillion in the UK alone will transfer from those born between 1945 - 1965 down to younger generations. 2035 is predicted to be the peak year.

@swissmummy12345

Because the baby boomer generation are beginning to die? In the next 10-15 years there will be the greatest transfer of wealth in history. Up to £5.5 trillion in the UK alone will transfer from those born between 1945 - 1965 down to younger generations. 2035 is predicted to be the peak year.

I'm In that age group, I'm not going anywhere just yet thank you

Because the baby boomer generation are beginning to die? In the next 10-15 years there will be the greatest transfer of wealth in history. Up to £5.5 trillion in the UK alone will transfer from those born between 1945 - 1965 down to younger generations. 2035 is predicted to be the peak year.

@sophandbridge

I'm In that age group, I'm not going anywhere just yet thank you

Are you my mum? That’s what she says every time I suggest she sorts her will out. Followed by ‘I won’t be around to see you all fall out over it’. Or you could just sort it out now mum.

If you are a baby boomer and haven’t sorted your LPA and Will, PLEASE, if you love your children, sort it. None of us knows when our time will be up and this ‘I’m not planning going any time soon’ is just nonsense.

People are also more aware of mortality given everything that is going on, so a lot more estate planning?

Whenever I see threads eagerly discussing inheritance, I always hope that the parents of these posters change their will to leave everything to charity.

@Dongdingdong

I always hope that the parents of these posters change their will to leave everything to charity

I honestly couldn’t give a stuff who my mum leaves her estate to, just so long as she doesn’t leave me to sort it out with no Will in place.

It’s the threads where blended family members get left out that upset she!

It’s always a second, marriage. Mum or dad don’t write a will so the second spouse gets everything,

There was an awful thread were a lady’s mum’s house wound up being inherited by someone she had never even met because her mum didn’t leave a will, it went to the second husband who left it to his niece.

Why do people not write wills.

Not only more deaths, there are very sadly more unexpected, unplanned for, unforeseen deaths. Probate solicitor friend of mine is dealing (and has been since March) with large number of ‘messy’ estates - no wills, old wills which were going to be updated but weren’t, families where plans weren’t discussed or explained etc.
Support all.

I'm In that age group, I'm not going anywhere just yet thank you

This - and if I did I would be transferring very little to anyone else, not having anything myself!

I'm In that age group, I'm not going anywhere just yet thank you

But anyone can die any time

"By analysing these predictions for those born in each year between 1946 and 1964, The Times has found that 111,320 baby boomers are likely to die this year, 221,347 will die in 2029, and 388,860 in 2039. That generation's deaths will reach a peak in 2044, when 420,236 people born between 1946 and 1964 will die."

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/postwar-baby-boomer-deaths-to-reach-their-peak-in-2044-3ks9gqlvk

The Times article was 2019 so before COVID which will increase those figures given that boomers are in the older COVID age groups

I don't think it's because more people have died recently. Most inheritance threads on MN are about the expectation of inheritance. (So I suppose strictly speaking, not really an inheritance thread 🤔.)

Who knows why there are clusters of topics on maybe it's one of those bias things. They are always there in a high number, it's just occasionally you spot one and then start seeing them all.

Whenever I see threads eagerly discussing inheritance, I always hope that the parents of these posters change their will to leave everything to charity.
Charities have blotted their copy books a lot over the last few years. I am loathe to leave them anything, so they can employ lots of overpaid white, expublic school folk to attend the fancy fund raising dinners etc. (I do give money to some).
If you give the money to family in the UK it will have tax paid on it and be recycled eventually so we all benefit.

@littlemiceinthecorner be careful of what you wish for.

My DM has got it into her head that she has a great fortune to leave so is tying herself in knots trying to leave bequests here, there and everywhere. Trusts have been mentioned. The 'estate' is a modest bungalow in the midlands.

Intestacy would probably be easier.

I think with everything going on with Covid a lot of people are thinking about their financial planning when it otherwise wouldn't have been a priority. I've recently realised myself and DP haven't really made any plans and we've left ourselves quite exposed should something happen to one of us.