Your recent article, Rise in number of intestacy disputes, highlighted two interesting issues: hard times encourage people to contest inheritances; and intestacies offer more opportunities for such disputes to take place. My summary of this state of affairs is that necessity and greed are powerful motivators of human behaviour, and death brings out the best and worst in us.

Even if the numbers in the Wedlake Bell research are not huge, the trend is worrying. And it is easy to imagine that, in straitened times, the rapid and relatively steep rise in inheritance disputes will only get steeper.

The Law Commission’s review of the intestacy rules and its impending report and draft bill underline the fact that a more contemporary (and equitable) system for settling intestacy cases is much needed. No doubt this would help address the rising tide of inheritance disputes.

But this is only part of the solution. There are other facets to consider. Pressing home the message that everyone should write a will in the first place is clearly a priority; as is the idea that a will needs managing. This means being prudent about making sure a will is properly registered. And the final link in the chain is knowing that, as a beneficiary, one can carry out a thorough search in the event that the testator’s will cannot be easily located or is deemed outdated.

These are simple steps, but ones that would help people adjust their perceptions of what they think they should try to ‘get away with’ when they stand to inherit on the death of a close friend or family member. I say this because, faced with an accurate, up-to-date record of the last wishes of the testator, fewer people would have the grounds or the appetite to contest it. These measures might not prevent inheritance disputes altogether, but they may well contribute to the reduction of such disputes back to more acceptable levels.

Robert Brown , Certainty.co.uk, Lapworth, Warwickshire