The latest edition of the annual Bereavement Index has revealed new trends around the contents of estates being left behind in 2022. This raises concerns about the welfare of those left to deal with those estates – often a close friend or family member of the deceased – and puts more responsibility on the legal professional to overcome them.
Last year, the average estate was worth ~£167k. This number has decreased by nearly £13k in 2022 and sits at £154k, showing a year-on-year trend of decreasing estate values. To add to this, 45% of estates are now worth less than £50k – a figure that has increased by 5% since 2021.
Considering the costs left behind to executors such as organising and paying for the funeral, paying off any debts the deceased may have had, and managing estate administration – often with the help of paid professionals – this trend of decreasing wealth, amidst the current financial crisis that is raising the costs of professional services and commodities, raises huge concern for the future of executor wellbeing. Said concern is heightened when we consider that 2% of estates are left in debt.
The annual Bereavement Index has revealed that 34% of individuals suffer financial difficulties as a result of estate administration, and of these people 86% have their mental health impacted, showing a direct correlation between cost pressures and declining mental health.
Adding more pressure to grieving notifiers is the diversity of estates today. With more and more assets coming into play – from digital assets like online bank accounts and social media profiles, to physical commodities like cars and housing – we put more pressure on the notifier to know and recall these assets after they have passed away. 99% of legal professionals rely, at least in some way, on executor knowledge to track and verify assets and liabilities of a deceased.
Considering that more than half of us possess more than one bank account, 11% possess three, and 5% possess 4 or more, these assets alone could be difficult to recall. And, because almost a quarter of people don’t have their affairs in order before they die and 5% have none of their affairs in order, meaning none of their assets are documented before the start of the estate administration process, should professionals really be leaving it to the grieving notifier to recall assets correctly, or should legal professionals take more of the responsibility?
How legal professionals can play a part in reducing the burden left on notifiers
In a nation struggling through the damage created by the pandemic, the war on Ukraine, and an unstable government, costs to consumers amidst rising inflation appear endless and are already leaving many people struggling financially and mentally.
As an industry that can make changes to reduce costs to consumers through the reduction of manual case processes and reliance on executors, and the introduction of more streamlined processes that will help overcome many of the challenges legal professionals say they face in our report, should legal professionals not be doing just that?
Dedicated estate administration software like Exizent is helping law firms speed up their internal processes like form filling through automation, streamline communications between those involved in the process by moving them away from post and ad hoc emails, use more reliable digital sources like Experian data to uncover unknown assets of a deceased, and to securely key data with cybersecurity features and cloud software. This leaves legal professionals with the capability to speed up the time they spend on admin, uncovering lost assets and following up on notifier requests, that will help reduce costs left for the notifier to cover with the low estate values being left behind.
Bereavement software doesn’t have to come at a cost to the legal professional either. With scalable cloud-solutions like Exizent, legal professionals can bring all of their case documents and details online and into the cloud, reducing the need for capital expenditure, the possibility of technological malfunctions (which puts your data and documents at risk) which come at a cost to fix, and that fits the size of your organisation and the number of cases you work on.
You can find out more about our pricing structures here or speak to one of our experts.
Read the full Bereavement Index report now.
This article was submitted to be published by Exizent as part of their advertising agreement with Today’s Wills and Probate. The views expressed in this article are those of the submitter and not those of Today’s Wills and Probate.
