Q. An elderly single cousin who is a neighbour has
always been fond of my children and regularly hints that he wishes them to be the beneficiaries of his will. I am sure he is sincere in this wish but I have discovered that he has not yet made a will. Without wishing to strike a grasping note, how can I hurry this procedure along? If he dies intestate, the monies will, I understand, go to his extremely well-off sister with whorildm has very little contact and towards whom he feels, I fear, very little affection.
Name and address withheld A. Why not throw a dinner party for 12 and invite your cousin? Camouflaged among the fellow guests should be a personable young female solicitor with a local office, who can be enjoined to regale the table with a couple of well-chosen horror stories about the estates of clients who have died intestate. You can count on her co-operation. Solicitors are only too keen to tout for will-writing business since they can often factor in themselves as co-executors and grasp a percentage of the estate. With any luck this may set the ball rolling.
Mary Killen
If you have a problem, write to Dear Maly, clo The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL.
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