Putting my affairs in order · 8 min read
7 reasons why thousands of British families are now choosing this method to put their affairs in order — before it’s ever needed
More than 568,000 families in England and Wales every year are left to sort out a parent’s estate with almost nothing written down. A quiet trend is starting to change that.
Every year in England and Wales, more than 568,000 families are left to sort out a parent’s affairs with almost nothing written down. Not because the parent was careless — because they genuinely thought they had more time.
By the time the children sit down at the kitchen table, the person who could have answered the questions is the one who isn’t there. The bank account exists — the password doesn’t. The pension exists — nobody knows which provider. The phone holds two years of photos — behind six digits nobody wrote down.
This is what most families call “sorting things out”. Recent surveys suggest it takes the average British family between nine and twelve months, and roughly half of them describe the experience with the word “nightmare”.
“A will says who inherits what. It doesn’t tell anyone what to do.” — Joan M., 68, Yorkshire
In the last three years, a growing number of parents — especially those between 55 and 78 — have started reaching for a simple printed kit instead of another book about wills or another appointment with a solicitor. Here’s what they say it does, in their own words.
Because it reveals everything you'd never think to write down
Wills cover the big things: who inherits the house, who gets the shares, who’s the executor. What they don’t cover is everything in between — the current-account details, the private-pension provider, the neighbour who has a spare key, the streaming subscriptions still charging, the energy account that’s still in your name from the last house.
The kit is built around 21 pre-labelled sections that walk you through exactly those. You don’t have to know what belongs where — every page tells you what to write on it.
I filled in the section on “recurring payments” and found four subscriptions I’d been paying for years — one for a magazine I stopped reading in 2019. I saved more in the first month than the kit cost.
Because it helps your family avoid mistakes, delays and days of worry
In England and Wales there are legal windows most people never hear about until they’re inside one. A death must be registered with the local register office within 5 days. Inheritance Tax must be paid by the end of the 6th month after death, or HMRC starts charging interest. A grant of probate typically takes 12–16 weeks from a straightforward application.
The kit lays these out on one page, in the order they come. Not as legal advice — as a checklist your family can follow with a cup of tea, one item at a time.
When Mum passed, the deadlines were the part that terrified us. Having them written out — with what to do at each one — took the panic out of the first month.
Because it turns a complicated subject into three simple steps
The kit organises the whole process into a framework the team calls the 5-6-12 plan. Three windows. Three sets of things to do. Nothing else to remember.
The first window is about registering the death and locking things down — the phone, the accounts, the mail. The second is about the tax deadline: Inheritance Tax must be paid by the end of the 6th month, and the kit walks your executor through exactly what to gather. The third is probate and distribution.
I’ve worked in the courts for twenty years. This is the first thing I’ve seen that turns end-of-life admin into something a normal family can actually do — without getting lost.
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Because it keeps everything in one place — instead of eight
Most households have their information scattered across a dozen locations: the top drawer of a desk, a shoebox in the wardrobe, an old email folder, a browser’s saved-passwords list, one bank app on the phone, another one on the laptop, a paper diary, a solicitor’s office.
When something happens, your family has to work out that this is the map — and then find every location. The kit collapses all of that into one folder that lives in one drawer. Every section labelled. Every page numbered. Nothing to hunt for.
“I thought I already had everything organised. Filling in the kit showed me how much wasn't actually written anywhere — it only existed in my head.”
My husband handles the bills. I handle the household. It took filling in this kit to realise that between us, neither of us had a complete picture.
Because your family probably doesn’t know your full situation — and no official service fills the gap
The UK government’s Tell Us Once service covers HMRC, DWP, the DVLA, HM Passport Office, the local council, and public-sector pension schemes. It doesn’t touch your bank, your private or workplace pension provider, your energy supplier, your solicitor, your funeral wishes, your subscriptions, your pets, or the four hundred small pieces of your daily life that only you know.
Most couples — even after 40 years together — do not actually share the operational details of their finances. One person handles the bills; the other handles the household. When one goes, the other holds half the map. The kit is the other half.
My husband and I have wills, powers of attorney, the lot. And yet when I opened the kit, half the pages were things neither of us had written down. It closed a gap we didn’t know existed.
Because you're not left on your own after you buy
Not just a PDF to download and forget—a complete system that guides you every step of the way. The support team replies to emails six days a week, in plain English, from real people. Most questions are things like “which section do I put my pension in?” and “how do I edit the digital version on my iPad?” — and they’re answered the same day.
Customers mention this specifically in their reviews more often than any other single thing.
I emailed them at 8pm on a Saturday, not expecting a reply until Monday. Had a friendly answer by Sunday morning.
Because you’re joining more than 3,000 families who’ve already got themselves organised
The kit currently holds a 4.8 / 5 average across 3,240 verified reviews, with 86% five-star ratings. Most customers order it for themselves. A growing minority order it as a gift for a parent — the kind of gift that produces a slightly uncomfortable conversation and, three months later, a phone call that starts with “thank you, I actually did it.”
Below are five of the most-quoted customer stories in the reviews.
