Intestacy: Who Gets What When There Is No Will?

In 2014, new rules (The Inheritance and Trustees’ Powers Act 2014) were introduced to dictate what will happen to your estate in the event that you should die intestate (without having made a valid will). These rules are as follows:-

Assets worth more than £250,000

• Your spouse/civil partner will be entitled to a statutory legacy to the value of £250,000;
• This amount is free from Inheritance Tax and includes any interest that could accrue between death and receipt of the legacy;
• The remainder of your estate (anything above the £250,000) will be then be divided, your spouse/civil partner will be entitled to one half with the other half going to your children including adopted or illegitimate children.

Assets worth less than £250,000

• Your spouse/civil partner will receive everything;
• Your issue will receive nothing.

In both of the above cases, your spouse/civil partners will inherit all of your personal belongings and if you have no children, your spouse/civil partner will receive everything.

Deaths before 1st October 2014
Prior to the introduction of these new rules, the statutory legacy stood at £250,000 only if the deceased left a surviving spouse and children, and £450,000 if the deceased left a surviving spouse, had no children but did leave one or both parents (or without parents if they leave a sibling or nephew/niece). However, the rules on how the residuary estate (the remainder) was to be divided were somewhat different.

Planning for the future
As can be seen from the above provisions, should you die intestate, the distribution of your estate will be limited to your spouse/civil partner and any children that you have. If you wish to make provision, financial or otherwise, for any other person or charity, this would not be reflected unless you take steps to put a will into place. However, it is important that you instruct a professional to do this for you because if your will is not drafted correctly, a partial intestacy could occur. This is where there has been a failure to dispose of some part of your estate (potentially as a result of a badly drafted will).