Most people have yet to make a will

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Around 57% of people currently do not have a will, rising to 65% among those who have children aged under 18, according to professional advice website Unbiased.co.uk.

Unsurprisingly, young people are the least likely to have made a will, with 88% of people in their 20s failing to write one.

But one in four people in their 60s has also failed to set out who they want their money and belongings to go to, rising to 41% among those aged between 50 and 59.

If people die without making a will their assets are classed as being intestate and are divided up according to set guidelines.

Under these guidelines, married couples automatically inherit only £250,000 of their partner's estate.

In the past, this has led to a mother having to sue her young children to access money that has been passed on to them when there was no will.

The main reason people gave for not having a will was that they had not got around to writing one yet, cited by 43%, while 24% said they had nothing of any value to leave behind.

Around 14% of people admitted it had never occurred to them to write a will, while 13% said they could not afford the cost of setting one up and 11% said they had not yet decided who they wanted to leave money to.

Just under one in 10 people admitted they had not written a will because they did not know how to go about it.