In the UK a parent of a child under 18 dies every 22 minutes. This means that by the age of 16, around one in 20 children will have experienced the death of one or both of their parents.

Despite this, 70 percent of parents with children under 18 do not have a will and so have not legally appointed guardians for their children if they were to die, according to research by UK will writing specialists Farewill.

The research, which sampled 2003 respondents, found that almost half of the UK did not know that if they do not have a will, the wishes for the guardianship of their children may not be recognised upon their death, ...