ALEXANDRA SHULMAN'S NOTEBOOK: Should we die broke - or hand it to the taxman?

By ALEXANDRA SHULMAN, MAIL ON SUNDAY COLUMNIST Published: 01:05, 26 July 2026 | Updated: 01:10, 26 July 2026 The other day a welcome sum of money arrived in my bank account. It was some cash from my mother's estate after her death in February. The amount I have inherited is not huge, but more than I expected.  And the fact it is there at all is due mostly to the fact that her care at home in recent years – until the last days of NHS help – was paid for by my sister. I appreciate this is not a common situation, as most people may have no choice but to deplete their funds to look after themselves in old age. And time and again I told our mother to use whatever money she had until it ran out, when we would then kick in. Despite this being irrational, she refused to spend money on herself, driven by what I suspect is an almost primal impulse, shared by many, to be able to leave us something – to care for us in some way, even beyond the grave. Even though she couldn't care for herself while alive. With the arrival of a new Prime Minister, the issue of how on earth to fund social care has once again taken centre stage.  And no matter how bright a spark Andy Burnham may be, I very much doubt he's going to crack it because whatever the options, nobody likes them. The fact is that most people in this country don't have enough assets to fund a high standard of care for more than about five years, even if they have savings and a home.  And those who do, like myself, have worked hard to achieve this and rather like the thought of having some of it left when we shuffle off. But examining my own attitudes to this matter, I realise I am utterly split.  The rational side accepts that we can't expect to receive fully funded care of a high calibre while keeping a home or savings in the back pocket for our children.  I don't see any real need for my son, who has had a great education and generally privileged existence so far, to inherit from me. The less rational side thinks – and this will apply to many of us who do have an estate that might be worth enough to keep us going – I don't want to have to spend it all on a horrible nursing home. I swing from side to side but increasingly veer towards the advice I was once given by a wealthy finance expert to die with nothing in the account. I may even be helped in this decision by the new government, which looks pretty keen on making sure we don't have much left to hand on and what we do will be eaten up in tax. I don't see any real need for my son, who has had a great education and generally privileged existence so far, to inherit from me, writes Alexandra Shulman (pictured) The issue of how on earth to fund social care has once again taken centre stage as Andy Burnham gets his feet under the table at Downing Street A former colleague at Vogue recently hosted a reunion for about 20 of my old team. I was so pleased to see they were mostly flourishing – although none still at Vogue – in contrast to Stacey Duguid, who worked at Elle and in senior fashion jobs for decades and who has made a stir on social media with her confession that aged 51, with two children, she is on Universal Credit and queueing at the local job centre. Analysing whether there is anything to be learnt from the differing experiences, I have to conclude that luck is the biggest factor.  While few of my former team are in full-time jobs, almost all have forged new means of earning of some kind and were fortunate to have partners who could support them during the transition, while Duguid had a difficult divorce to contend with. Nice as it would be to spot a reliable road map for this stage of life, surveying this group of women in their 50s and 60s I can only conclude that there is no such thing. One of Alexandra Shulman's ex-colleagues is on Universal Credit and queueing at the local job centre It's another summer movie face- off – Christopher Nolan's big-budget The Odyssey versus Olivia Wilde's brilliantly funny, The Invite.  While The Odyssey is arguably a too long, three-hour epic laden with a massive cast, The Invite is a four-hander that takes place in one room of an American apartment. Unsurprisingly, I'm team The Invite since an excruciating comedy of middle-aged manners is more up my street than a man-eating Cyclops and endless battle scenes. However, the great news is that they are both packing out cinemas and luring people out from their sofas, which is what we need for the movie industry to thrive. Spider-Man star Tom Holland is pictured as Telemachus in Christopher Nolan's latest epic, The Odyssey Every summer there's a men in shorts issue – and this summer more than ever as so many men have taken to baring their legs around town in the heatwave. Personally, I don't love men in shorts in the city, and like the Japanese women who took part in a recent survey, citing sunehara – or leg hair harassment – certainly do not approve of them for office wear. We've just returned from a brief break in Italy with a multi-generational group. During the day we were in anything cool but in the evening we made an effort to spruce up a bit.  Interestingly, it was the old geezers who stuck to baggy shorts and T-shirts for dinner, while the younger guys put on long trousers and crisp shirts – and looked so much the more stylish for it. There's a men shorts issue this summer as many have taken to baring their legs around town in the heatwave (File image) Also in southern Italy there was a beautifully tended garden watered every day. No hosepipe or sprinkler ban there. Unlike London, where the Thames Water ban means if you lean out of the window after midnight, you can hear not Joni Mitchell's Hissing Of Summer Lawns (her song about the hollowness of wealthy America, where sprinklers keep the lawns emerald green), but the hissing of front garden hosing, hoping to escape detection. Thames Water brought in a hosepipe ban on Friday amid the recent heatwaves that have hit Britain (File image) Has anyone else spotted the trend for wearing your curlers out and about? Last week Kate Garraway was snapped entering a TV studio with hers, but recently I've spotted women on trains and the Tube and just on the street proudly channelling their inner Hilda Ogden. Kate Garraway arrives at the BBC wearing hair curlers on Sunday before she appears on Laura Kuenssberg's morning show