A surprising amount of people never make a Will. Most of us don’t like to think of our own demise; Making a Will and thinking about who would inherit our assets is often something that we put off, time and time again. The lack of a Will can often lead to complications when someone dies and their families discover that sorting out the legal issues may not be as straightforward as they hoped.

Under the Rules of Intestacy, dying without a valid Will means that your spouse or civil partner would inherit the first £250,000, plus your personal items and half of the remainder of your assets – your children would inherit the rest. With house prices steadily increasing, this could mean that your spouse or civil partner could inherit a home but not the cash that might enable them to pay bills or keep the home in a good state of repair.

Dying without leaving a valid will can also mean that unmarried partners and people who remarry with children from previous relationships have no protection.

Maxine Phillips, a senior paralegal specialising in Wills, Trusts and Probate at Jackson Lees, comments:

The law says that if you die without leaving a valid Will, whether because you never made one or because the one you made is invalid, your estate (which includes all assets held in your sole name such as property, bank accounts or personal items) will be distributed according to the Rules of Intestacy.

The Rules of Intestacy do not always distribute assets in the most tax efficient manner or in the way a deceased may have wanted.

A widely held assumption is that, if someone is married, all of their assets will pass to their spouse/civil partner. If you are married and have no children then your spouse/civil partner does inherit everything but, if you have children, then the situation becomes more complicated.

An example of this came to light recently following the death of an elderly lady. She had never had children herself but had married a widower and helped bring up her husband’s children from when they were very young. The children had always called her ‘Mum’ and they had a good relationship.

On the death of her husband, who did not leave a Will, the lady inherited the whole of his estate, since his assets were under £250,000. Some years later, the lady also died without making a Will.

Unfortunately, as the children were not her biological children even though she regarded them as her own, her estate under the Rules of Intestacy passed to her surviving siblings who were her closest surviving relatives.”

Even when you have a valid Will in place, this should also be reviewed from time to time to make certain it still fulfils your requirements. For example, many people are surprised to learn that if they remarry, following a divorce or death of a spouse/civil partner, a previously made Will is revoked or cancelled, which may lead to potential issues in future.

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