As if having children with different partners and taking on a step-family weren’t complicated enough, I’ve heard from Investec that parents of extended families are twice as likely as those with natural children to put off drawing up or changing a will.

They say that one in five (20%) parents with natural born sons and daughters has avoided creating or amending a will because they are unable to decide how to divide their assets amongst the family. However this figure rises to 35% and 47% among parents with stepchildren and adopted children respectively.

I5.6 million (19%) parents have had two or more relationships that have led them to become legally responsible for children while 12% and 13% of parents have at least one stepson and stepdaughter respectively. However, stepchildren have no natural entitlement to an inheritance regardless of how long they have been in the family unit.

Apparently almost one in three parents (31%) are not planning to divide up their assets evenly between their children.  Around 5% will leave more to their natural children than their stepchildren and / or those that have been adopted, and 4% of parents plan to allocate their inheritance according to need, prioritising children who require the most help (fair enough I think).  Upsettingly, 6% of parents have chosen to exclude their children from their wills altogether.

What I can’t bear is that Investec’s research has found that 39% of parents don’t even have a will at all.  Of those that do, over half (51%) have never amended the contents and a further 26% have done so only once, suggesting many wills are out of date.

So, again, I say MAKE A WILL. If you have any sort of property and certainly if you have children, including step-children or adopted children, MAKE A WILL. It’s not hard. In fact you can see here our easy guide to getting a will written.