I implore you to make a will right now. You never know when you'll die - and if you die without a will, you will 100 per cent leave chaos behind. I'm just in the middle of an argument with a mate whose last will was written before her divorce was finalised some 15 years ago. That will leaves everything to her now very ex-husband.

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When I had a chat with her about it, she basically said: "Nah, it will be fine. He'll give the money to the kids."

It's true, this bloke is very lovely. But a will is a will - and you never know what hell will descend in the wake of a wake. We've seen time and time again the mayhem grief causes, the mayhem greed causes. About 20 per cent of us don't even plan to make a will. It's wild. That means others are left behind to clean up the mess of your estate.

Here's one tragic example. Businessman Andrew Findlay died in a boating accident in 2024. His former partner contested the will last year but a Supreme Court judge ruled Findlay's multimillion-dollar estate will be inherited by his three children and not their mother.

Investment management company JB Were estimates total inheritances between 2024 and 2044 to be about $5.4 trillion, up from the 2017 estimates by the Productivity Commission of $3.5 trillion over two decades.

And who gets those inheritances? Mostly our partners if still in a couple or our kids. Then a further small per cent goes to other family and friends. There's a push on now to consider leaving bequests to not-for-profits.

Mind you, I'm only recently one to be able to give advice about making wills. In 2020, my mother-in-law died in the middle of COVID. She left her will in perfect order.........

© Canberra Times