A nation of animal lovers

Britain is indeed a nation of animal lovers, as is shown by a survey on wills.

The survey of over 14,000 pet owners by insurers More Than found that :-

• Over 1/3 say that they plan to leave more than £10,000.00 to their pets
• A similar number said that their pet would get a bigger inheritance
• Some 20% even said that they would leave their home to their pet
• About 25% would leave sentimental items such as their pet’s favourite chair or photographs.
• Adding up all the figures, the survey would suggest that animals would be left the huge sum of £26 billion

There are of course practical realities of leaving money or assets to a pet – they still need humans to look after them and a pet has no legal status to receive a bequest. We would take this survey with a pinch of salt; it certainly shows how much we love our pets and that many wills do leave assets to animal charities. Clearly, these kinds of provisions should be carefully thought out with the benefit of good professional advice.