The Probate Game

Synopsis

Jolyon Jenkins investigates the probate industry and meets genealogists whose job it is to unite people with assets and the beneficiaries of intestate estates. He asks why there is so little regulation of this often lucrative industry and examines how a national register of wills, common to most developed countries, could ease the strain in times of grief.

People in the UK are three times as likely to review their gas bill than make a will, yet this important document is the difference between loved ones receiving our assets after their death and not.

Broadcast

1. Mon 16 Nov 2009
   11:00
   BBC Radio 4