Dying to Know — Estate Planning Guide | MoneyTrainers
Most people have a Will. Almost nobody knows if it still works.
It was probably written years ago. The executors may have moved. The beneficiaries may have changed. The assets look completely different to what they were. And somewhere at the back of a drawer, in a folder that might be blue, there is a document that is quietly making decisions nobody has reviewed.
That is just the Will. There is also the Power of Attorney that does not exist yet. The pension nomination completed in 2009. The care fees nobody has thought about. The digital accounts nobody can access. The conversation that keeps getting postponed.
“Doing nothing is not neutral. Doing nothing is a decision.”
What is Dying to Know?
Dying to Know is a plain-speaking UK guide to end-of-life planning written for real families, not solicitors. It covers everything families need to understand before a health crisis, a loss of capacity, or a death forces the issue at the worst possible moment.
Written by Richard Smith, Explainer in Chief at MoneyTrainers.co.uk, it draws on years of reviewing real estate plans and watching families discover too late the gaps they didn’t know were there.
What does it cover?
- Wills — why having one is not enough, and what to check
- Lasting Power of Attorney — for property, finances, health, and welfare
- Care fees — what the State pays, what it doesn’t, and how families get caught out
- Inheritance tax — how to use your allowances without expensive mistakes
- Pensions and nominations — one of the most commonly overlooked assets on death
- Trusts — when they help, when they don’t, and why old ones need reviewing
- Advance Decisions — making your medical wishes known before you can’t
- Digital assets — the passwords, accounts, and memories nobody can access
- The Family Rehearsal — a practical framework for getting the right conversations started
- The Last Ten Years Audit — a 20-question self-assessment to find the gaps in your plan
Who is it for?
Dying to Know is for anyone who is aware that something probably needs sorting and keeps finding reasons not to. It is for adult children wondering how to start the conversation with ageing parents. It is for couples who have never quite said out loud what happens if one of them is not there. It is for anyone who suspects their plans are out of date but has not had time to check.
It is not written for lawyers or financial advisers. It is written for the rest of us.
Why does it matter?
The last ten years of life rarely arrive with a warning. They creep in a fall, a diagnosis, a moment when something is no longer quite manageable. Most families only discover how underprepared they are after a crisis has already started.
The paperwork, the conversations, the decisions none of it is complicated. The problem is that nobody does it until they have to. By then, the cost is stress, delay, family disagreement, and money that did not need to be spent.
One conversation, started early enough, changes everything. This guide helps you start it.
Plain speaking. Occasionally blunt. Genuinely useful.
