While death is a fact of life, discussing your passing with those closest to you, and what you would like to happen when the time comes, is never going to be easy.
The emotion attached to the subject means it could become an upsetting one for everyone involved, which in turn may mean it’s a conversation that never actually takes place.
While understandable, not sitting down with loved ones to discuss your passing and what you would want to happen may create problems for them when your time comes. As a result, an already difficult time may become even more upsetting for them, as they deal with the financial implications of your passing as well as the emotional.
One way you might be able to make the conversation easier is to involve a financial adviser. Following on from Dying Matters Week, which encourages families to talk about death, dying and grief, read on to discover three powerful ways a financial adviser could make this important conversation easier.
1. Help ensure the conversation remains objective
Talking about your passing with those closest to you will always be highly charged with emotion. Family and friends may struggle to talk about it, which means your aims for the conversation may not be achieved.
As a consequence, your wishes may not be fully carried out or understood by loved ones, which could result in confusion and disagreements over your estate. In addition to this, it may mean the process of passing your assets to loved ones takes longer.
As most financial advisers are used to talking to clients about mortality and intergenerational wealth planning, they know how to deal with difficult conversations in a respectful yet proactive way. Consequently, they can remain empathetic while staying focused on the issues that need to be discussed.
This in turn can help to ensure all the points you want to discuss are covered, which means your loved ones are more likely to understand what you would like to happen when your time comes. Furthermore, the risk of disagreements and delays with your estate could be significantly reduced.
2. Ensure financial misunderstandings are avoided
The world of finance is complicated and all too easy to misunderstand. As a result, the financial implications of your wishes might be misunderstood by those closest to you, which might, for example, result in them facing an unexpected tax liability.
Involving a financial adviser in your conversations means that they’re on hand to iron out any misunderstanding or confusion about your estate. In addition to this, they can explain the potential risks and opportunities your gift may offer the beneficiary, and how they could best deal with them.
Having a financial adviser on hand can ensure these misunderstandings are sidestepped and everyone understands the reason for your decisions. This means you can rest easy that when you do pass your wealth on to your nearest and dearest, they will be able to get the most from it, which could help to boost their long-term financial security.
3. Ensure all your assets are accounted for
Working with a financial adviser before your conversation with loved ones could help you sidestep an all-too-common issue that may cost your beneficiaries dearly: lost assets.
As financial advisers need to take a detailed record of your assets in order to give you the right guidance, they will have a complete picture of your estate when you die.
They can then provide your loved ones with a clear understanding of your wealth, which means your family will not need to search for your bank accounts, investments and pensions.
If they do need to search for your assets because they do not have a full itinerary of your wealth, it can create unwanted stress at a particularly difficult time for them. Worse still, it increases the risk of some assets being missed or lost, which could significantly reduce the amount of wealth you then pass on to them.
Get in touch
As one of the UK’s largest independent financial advice companies, we understand how someone’s estate and wealth is intertwined. That’s why every one of our professional advisers are qualified estate planners, and have a deep working knowledge around:
- will writing
- dealing with probate
- how IHT works and how to mitigate a liability
- using trusts to protect wealth.
This means our financial advisers have an excellent understanding of estates and probate, so that they can help you to pass your wealth on to your loved ones as smoothly and tax efficiently as possible.
If you would like to discuss how we may be able to help you, please call us on 0333 010 0008 to arrange a no obligation initial meeting with one of our independent financial advisers.
14 May 2025