What to do before you exit

Don’t leave your estate in a mess. Simon Bruce examines what happens when you don’t organise your affairs before you die.

It’s fair to say that it has not been a good year for celebrities. The BBC has announced that it will struggle to include all the high-profile deaths in its annual tribute slot at the end of 2016.

Sadly, in the digital age, the collective mourning of the nation is reduced to a frenzy of RIP tweets. Indeed, the ‘RIP’ hashtag (the # symbol used to identify a particular topic on social media) is officially one of the most-used tweets of the year.

Among the most interesting stories was news that pop idol Prince died without a valid will in place – and he’s not the only wealthy icon to do so. Rik Mayall, Bob Marley, Martin Luther King, Jimi Hendrix all left this world leaving a trail of anxiety for loved-ones. Even Abraham Lincoln did not have a will and he was a lawyer.