WHY should a person make a will?

“A lot of it depends on people’s personal circumstances,” said Reshma Field.

“If you don’t have a will in place, there is something called the rules of intestacy. They set out what happens to somebody’s estate when they die without having a will in place.

“That generally follows the close family. Money will go to close family in a specific order, which can be fine if you have an estate where you are happy to have it go to family members in this specific order.”

She recommends that people find out more about intestacy by visiting www.gov.uk/inherits-someone-dies-without-will

“If you’re not having a will put in place, at least know what will happen – that’s my first bit of advice.

“Having found out what might happen, think about whether that’s actually what you want. Is that who you want to inherit? Families are so different now – people remarry, there are children from previous relationships to think about.

“If you’ve got young children there are other reasons to have a will in place. You might have already passed down an inheritance to somebody, so you might think, ‘Well, actually I need to change the percentages of who gets what.’

“Without a will, basically, you have no control over where your money goes. That’s the biggest thing. You have no choice, you’re not in charge and there’s a set of rules that governs it.

“So the benefit of having a will is that you can say where you want your money to go.

“It can deal with more complicated issues such as remarriage and making sure children from previous relationships will inherit and, if you have young children, appointing guardians, setting up a trust if you need to, leaving money to charity, leaving money to friends, leaving specific items to a family member – jewellery to a daughter, that sort of thing.”

Reshma, the daughter of doctors, was born in India, but the family came to Swindon when she was two and lived at the old Princess Margaret Hospital.

Her background is one of the reasons why she is a staunch supporter of Brighter Futures, the Great Western Hospital appeal for radiotherapy machines. Reshma also offers GWH staff a discount for her services in recognition of their work.

Having grown up in Swindon she studied law before working as a solicitor in Kent. Later, her husband’s job brought her back to Swindon.

Rather than continuing as a solicitor, she decided to retire from the profession and become a will writer, which allows her to spend more time with her two children as well as giving immense job satisfaction.

“It’s helping elderly clients through what can be a complicated process – and young couples, young families, particularly when they’re appointing guardians.

“It’s when you can see the look of relief on their face when they’ve signed the will, and you’ve been the person who helped them get that box ticked.

“I like the client contact. I’m going there not just as a will-writer but to have a cup of tea, have a chat, find out about their lives. That’s really interesting.”

Reshma also handles Power of Attorney requests, the procedure by which people nominate somebody to handle their affairs should they become incapable of doing so.

She is a strong advocate of making arrangements, but has plenty of ideas as to why some people - such as the late owners of the 38 unclaimed Swindon estates - do not.

“I think there are a few reasons. One of them is that while people know they should have a will in place, it’s such a distant thing to think about – ‘When I die.’ Basically, life gets in the way.

“It’s on a to-do list somewhere, but paying the bills, sorting out the children, booking a family holiday take precedence.

“You just don’t have time or other things get pushed up the to-do list. People come to me because they’ve sort of finally got to that stage where they’ve had the time or an event has triggered it, like somebody passing away.

“But a lot of people don’t like thinking about death. It’s a stressful thing to think about so they just keep putting it off, or if they do have family politics going on and think they’re going to have difficult conversations, they put off the things they don’t want to do. It’s just natural.

“Some people, bizarrely, think they’re tempting fate if they have a will written – they think, ‘If I have it done, that’s it, I’m going to die the next day.

“There are practical reasons and there are emotional reasons.

“There’s also a fear of the unknown – if I go and see a solicitor or a will-writer are they going to bamboozle me with all this legal jargon?

“A lot of people, if they are both working, might have to take time off and arrange an appointment, that sort of thing.”

Reshma welcomes inquiries even from people who are not yet ready to write their will. Her website is swindonwillwriting.co.uk