I was recently asked by a sceptical friend to give a good reason why she should make a Will. I answered that, in fact, I could give her 216 reasons.

216 is the number of beneficiaries who recently inherited a moderately valued estate of £250,000; where some received cheques for as little as £3.76

A recent vote organised by MEP Sven Giegold, named and shamed financial products that consumers felt were the most dangerous consumers and the environment.

One of the culprits was Food speculation funds. This type of investment topped the table for financial products that were most likely to harm the environment.

The recent minutes from the recent Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting, gave concerns about the state of the UK economy.

Three MPC members including the Governor Mervyn King voted in favour of further £25 Billion of Quantitve easing, increasing the total amount of QE so far to £400 Billion.

Although Tree members voted for the increase, six voted against additional measures for the time beginning

The 2013 Annual Budget Statement painted a somewhat bleak economic picture, alleviated by a few crowd-pleasing bright spots. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne cut the predicted level of growth in the UK during 2013 from 1.2% to 0.6%.

UK, US and European stock markets are all lower today after US inflation rose and investors start to take some profits.

London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.6% to as at 3:30 this afternoon, whilst the main European markets of France and Germany have also experienced falls today.

Mark Carney is a name some people might not have heard; however in June he will succeed Mervyn King as the Governor of the Bank of England.

The 47 year old Canadian Bank Governor will surely ruffle a few feathers when he takes over in the summer

He has already criticised Angel Gurria, secretary-general of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, for suggesting central banks could do little more to boost growth.