Lots in the news today about everyone having to work longer before getting their State Pension.

Not entirely unexpected as the present Government has already laid plans to make us struggle at the coal face until men hit 66 and women 65.

But that was all before billions were paid to shore up our banking system and the next Government, of whatever hue, is going to have to deal with a massive black hole in the country’s finances. Pensions are one of the biggest problems (and don’t get me started on workplace pension schemes – a topic for another day!).

It was perhaps inevitable that the day of reckoning for state pension age was going to come sooner rather than later.

Ultimately, the one thing we all fear is an impoverished old age. Depending on the State to provide us with anything other than the most basic provision is simply unaffordable and the UK is not alone in facing what has been called the ‘demographic time bomb’. As medical knowledge improves, we are all living longer and someone has to pick up the tab for pensions having to keep us for perhaps 20 or 30 years AFTER we retire.

In 2005, Lord Turner (now the Chair of the Financial Services Authority) recommended to the Government that the state pension age has to rise if we are going to be able to provide any sort of half way decent pension. He has now been quoted as saying that if he was writing his report today, he would be suggesting a retirement age of 70 and that within the next 20 years or so. The word on the street is that he will be asked by a future Conservative Government to review the state pension system again. I’m not taking bets that he would move away from that position!

And the lesson to take away from all this? Don’t depend on the State to provide you with a comfortable old age. If you have access to a workplace pension (with all their faults) take it, especially if your employer is paying a contribution on your behalf. Failing that, start saving for that long rainy day…

Our heartiest congratulations to Maeve for her magnificent performance on the BBC TV Breakfast Show on Saturday morning.

Maeve O'Higgins Queen of PreNups

Whisked away by BBC chauffeur to Shepherd’s Bush before dawn, Maeve pulled off a masterful ‘double bill’ performance at 6.10am and again, as a panellist, at 7.10am, dealing most skilfully with all questions thrown at her by Charlie Stayt in spite of the unearthly hour, the glare of the TV cameras and her national audience.

 Maeve is now undeniably the Queen of PreNups  in the UK….!

Hits on our Pre-Nuptial Agreement Site  increased by 250% as a result!

Well done, Maeve!!!!!!

BBC and Telegraph are featuring the huge rise in pre-nuptial agreements and you can post your comments at the BBC if you really want to…. but since we are setting the agenda here we suggest that you post your comments below.

Maeve really is the Queen of PreNups

Contact Maeve at prenups@silvermansherliker.co.uk

Full marks! Dangerous, Invincible and Bad…but at least the King of Pop made a Will  …though it hasn’t stopped mother Katherine Jackson, allegedly egged on by father Joe (totally ignored in the Will ), from mounting a legal challenge and contesting a will that leaves everything to The Michael Jackson Family Trust.

She is seeking to wrest control of the USD500 million estate from the executors appointed by the Will, notwithstanding a ‘no contest’ clause in the Will that disinherits any beneficiary who challenges its validity or its terms.

It will no doubt be a thriller and there will be blood on the dance floor at the end of it all.  Ho, Ho.

In the UK the number of people contesting a Will is rising steeply. In the last 2 years the number of cases coming before the Courts has apparently risen threefold.  Our own experience, bears out the trend. Our Private Client Unit launched a free Contesting A Will legal advice service last week and has been inundated with enquiries.

This is due to a number of identifiable factors including the increasing number of long-term ‘common law’ marriages, the number of people relying on cheap and inadequate ‘DIY wills’, successive remarriages leading to rival clans of children, avarious second wives and husbands, the increasing value of estates due to rising property prices and the increasing number of people leaving all of their estate to charitable or political institutions.

Increasingly, people are contesting a will on the grounds that the testator may not have been of sound mind or have had ‘testamentary capacity’ when making the will.

Notably,  a will was successfully challenged last year on the basis that the deceased had left all of his £8 million estate to the Conservative Party. One assumes that the court did not take that to be evidence in itself that the testator must have been delusional when he made the will and that the case wasn’t won on ‘res ipsa loquitur’ argument.

The courts are showing increasing willingness to order that the costs of cases contesting a will should be paid out of the estate itself or shared between the parties and the increasing availabilty of legal costs insurance cover and conditional fee agreements means that fewer would-be litigants are deterred by the costs risk of launching a legal challenge.

The Moral being …make a proper will …unless you want the entertainment to continue after you’ve gone!