Few people like to contemplate their own mortality. While this may be fine on a spiritual level, it has grave consequences when it comes to practical realities such as writing a will. The results can be bad enough in an averagely well-off family, perhaps with one home in the estate, a couple of bank accounts and a mutual fund holding. But for a wealthy family, especially one with assets spread around the globe, the impact can be much worse.
All the usual arguments between potential heirs can be magnified by the scale and complexity of the legacy, increasing the risks of court cases and even of cross-border clashes between different jurisdictions. For those in charge of operating businesses, the stakes are even higher — a lack of succession planning can undermine management and jeopardise profits and jobs, possibly for years.
You would have thought, then, that the rich would take more care with their wills. Not so. A survey of family offices by Campden Research and UBS bank found only 32 per cent of the world’s rich have a formal written succession plan. With another 24 per cent having either an informal written plan or one that is verbally agreed, only just over half of those polled have some kind of scheme in place. The rest do not.