Where there's a Will?

Our history is full of quirky tales of strange legacies and contested Wills

Two of our most ironic and revered national figures - William Shakespeare and Horatio Nelson - left interesting bequests and instructions in theirs.

There has been much speculation about whether leaving your wife your second-best bed, as Shakespeare did to Anne Hathaway, was a warm tribute or calculated sleight.

Lord Nelson added a codicil to his Will on the morning of the Battle of Trafalgar, in which he left Lady Hamilton (with whom he had an illegitimate daughter Horatia) as a legacy to King and country, asking also that she be financially supported.

Anne Hathaway's thoughts have not been recorded. Nelson's petition on behalf of his mistress was not successful and within 10 years of Nelson's death at Trafalgar, Lady Hamilton had died in poverty in Calais.

Today making a Will is no less important than it was centuries ago - indeed it is even more so, as we shall see.

A poll for the charity Barnados showed earlier this year that over half the adults in the UK have not made a Will. The figure for cohabiting couples who haven't made a Will is shown as higher at 74%.

Some people put off making a Will because they are uncomfortable - even superstitious - about thinking about a time after they're gone. Others may think wrongly that their estate will go to their nearest and dearest automatically.

But once you have made a Will, unless circumstances change and you wish to make amendments or additions, you really can consider the job done and forget about it. There are many good reasons to make a Will, not least of which is that your wishes about who inherits your assets and more importantly, if you have children, who should care for them when you are no longer around, are known and set down in a legal document.

For example, if you do not have a Will, are unmarried but living with your partner, you may be putting your loved ones at risk. A person who dies without making a valid Will is known as dying 'intestate'. In these cases, the assets belonging to such a person are distributed according to a strict set of default rules, and instead of going to the deceased's chosen beneficiaries, they are left to relatives in a particular order.

If someone dies without close relatives, it may even mean the estate passing to The Crown, even if the deceased would have preferred friends or charities to benefit.

When you are cohabiting, the cohabitee has no entitlement in the event of intestacy therefore it is essential that you make appropriate provision for each other by making Wills.

If marriage or a civil partnership is not on the agenda, a cohabitation agreement and/or deed of trust when you start to live together, or when you decide to have children, will help to put your mind at rest.

It is also important to note that the effect of entering a marriage or civil partnership is to automatically revoke a Will.

The only way around this is to make a Will called "in contemplation of marriage" to a particular person and within a particular time - then, if these conditions are met, the Will remains valid. For parents with children under 18, a Will takes care of such issues as naming guardians for the children and if possible, appointing trustees for such capital as we will leave to the children on death.

If the unexpected does then happen it is one less - hugely important - detail to have to worry about.

A Will is one of those things that only shows its real power and importance when absent. Time spent now preparing a Will can save heartache and more expense in the future.