The pets shall inherit

Very few people in Malaysia or Singapore will want to leave their assets to their pets when they die but apparently to some Westerners, this is a serious consideration. In my years as an estate planner, I have yet to come across any client who has expressed any wish for this. Charity, yes, there are clients who wrote their wills and gave a small amount or percentage to charitable organisations. But not to pets.

Therefore, I was a little surprised to read that according to Unbiased.co.uk in England, about one out of every 34 people that they surveyed in September indicated that they were thinking of leaving their assets to their pets. That extrapolated out to about 1.4 million people in a country of about 49 million.

Unbiased’s survey results indicated: about 28.8 million people would like their assets to go to their children; 25.7 million would like their spouse or partner to inherit their assets; and 8.8 million would like to see their assets go to another relative.

After this, the survey results became less predictable: about 4.4 million people preferred to give to a specific charity, 3.1 million think about giving their assets to a friend, 1.4 million to go to a pet, one million people planned to give to their church, 0.5 million people would give to a secret lover, 0.4 million to the local community, 0.3 million people said to the government and 0.2 million said they wouldn’t mind giving to a total stranger.

But while over nine out of 10 people (92 percent) have a clear idea of how they’d want to distribute their money when they die, an estimated 30 million people currently are without a Will in the United Kingdom, meaning their best intentions may not come to fruition.

The survey is part of Unbiased’s Write a Will Week, highlighting the importance of having an up-to-date Will in place. Dying intestate means leaving the decision to the government to decide the order of who gets what from your estate and if no one comes forward then the government will take the lot.

Karen Barrett, chief executive of Unbiased, said: “Family structures are constantly evolving, less people are getting married, and an increasing number of people wish to leave money to charities or friends, therefore it has never been more important to clearly state your wishes in a Will.”

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