Where there’s a will..

Planning for end & your legacy? We look at how over-50s plans and ISAs compare

enough money to pay for your funerals and any other bills and perhaps leave something to your family.

If that is the case then the starting point is to look at all of the assets that you have, including your home, any savings and all of your possessions.

Together, this makes up the value of your estate and if you have made a will, then you may already have decided where you would like all of this to go on your death. If you haven’t, then you should.

You mention over-50s plans and ISAs and they are completely different things. So let’s look at ISAs first of all. An ISA is a tax-efficient savings scheme that lets you invest up to £20,000 a year and pay no tax on any interest or

growth in the value of your plan. Any money in your ISA when you die will be left to any beneficiaries you choose, and can also be used to pay bills on death.

If you’re looking at an ISA, you should check out one of the comparison sites and see which bank are offering the best rates. Remember to look at any tie-in that you’re signing up for – for example, you might get a better rate if you agree to leave your money for 12 or 24 months.

Over-50s plans are a form of life assurance where you pay a premium every month and a lump sum of money is paid out when you die. They are advertised heavily on daytime TV and sound very attractive. The reality is slightly different. They can often be expensive, inflexible and only ever give a return on death. So you need to be very sure that you’ll never need the money that you’re paying into the plan.

You also need to have a long hard think about how much cover you need to buy, how much it will cost you and how long you think you’re going to live.

We don’t know the answers to all of these questions but you need to consider them all because you want to make sure, as much as you can, that you don’t end up living too long and paying more into the plan than will be paid out on your death.

That’s why if your health is poor at the moment then these plans can sometimes be good value because they generally allow you to have at least some level of cover without the need for any medical underwriting.

For many people, one of their biggest assets is their house and this can be really useful if you need money now because at your ages you would be able to access a proportion of the cash tied up in your house using some form of equity release loan.

This may allow you to gift some money to your family now rather than waiting until after your death.

If you have any debt then, it would allow you to repay that now rather than leave it to your family after your deaths.