The Government is being urged to consider making a will a legal requirement to avoid the trauma which so often results when a person dies without one.

Terry Le-Long, who runs Nathon Legal Services Shropshire Ltd (NLS Shropshire Will & Trust Services), is Shropshire, Staffordshire and Mid Wales Regional Chairman of the Society of Will Writers (SWW), the UK's leading professional body for the will writing industry with more than 2,000 members.

Terry said: "The Government has a responsibility to increase awareness of the importance of planning for the one inevitable in life. I know some people will say, 'well he would say that wouldn't he,' but if those people witnessed the distress caused within a family when a relative dies without leaving a will, they would be more inclined to agree with me.

"The Government finds so many ways to interfere in our lives and offer plentiful advice on a wide range of issues, but when it comes to something as important as this, it seems to take little interest.

"I am reluctant to suggest this may be because the state often benefits quite nicely when a person dies intestate, but I believe there is an onus on the Government to, at the very least, conduct an awareness campaign, stressing the importance of a will. If this doesn't prove successful in increasing the very small number of people who write a will, I would urge them to consider legislation. I will be writing to local MPs about the issue to gauge their reaction," he said.

Terry said members of the Society of Will Writers, who are fully trained and have professional indemnity insurance, are able to visit people in the comfort of their own home to discuss their will and estate-planning.