Almost a third, 29%, of financial advisers and other trust and estate practitioners are seeing more disputes over wills and trusts linked to incapacity.
One in seven, 14%, have seen a lasting power of attorney (LPA) arranged for someone who already lacked capacity, according to research among its members by professional body STEP.
Separate independent consumer research carried out on behalf of STEP found that more than four in five UK adults (82%) have never talked about who should make decisions about their health, finances and care if they lost mental capacity through dementia, illness or a serious accident.
That equates to around 45m people in the UK, STEP pointed out.
Despite being the age group most likely to be caring for older parents while planning for their own future, only 11% of 45 to 54-year-olds have discussed what would happen if they lost mental capacity, according to the survey.
It also found that just 11% of adults plan to seek advice on making an LPA for a time when they may lack capacity.
People aged 25 to 34-year-olds are the most likely to seek advice (15%). Nearly one in four (23%) see a health diagnosis as the time to make or update a will. However, a will or LPA can only be made while someone has mental capacity, and that can be lost suddenly.
STEP is the global professional association for practitioners who specialise in family wealth and succession planning. It has over 23,000 members in 96 countries.
• The global practitioner research was conducted by STEP during 17 November-10 December 2025, with members and practitioners, including those in legal, tax and accounting, fiduciary, family office and family business advisory. A total of 533 respondents took part and a number of STEP ‘TEP’ members were also interviewed during January 2026.
• Independent research was also commissioned with Censuswide to survey the views of 2,000 nationally representative UK adults (aged 18+). The research took place 12 December 2025 to 2 January 2026.