What happens if you die without a will in England and Wales?
It's one of those things most of us put off. Life is busy, the subject is uncomfortable, and there's always a reason to deal with it "next month." But if something happens to you before you've made a will, you don't get to decide what happens to what you own. A set of fixed rules called the rules of intestacy decide for you.
Who inherits if there's no will
Under intestacy rules, your estate is divided up strictly by family relationship, regardless of what you'd have wanted:
- If you're married or in a civil partnership and have no children, your spouse or partner usually inherits everything
- If you have children, your spouse or partner gets your personal possessions, the first £322,000 and half of whatever is left. Your children share the other half
- If you're unmarried and living with a partner, they inherit nothing automatically, no matter how long you've been together
- If you have no spouse, partner or children, the estate passes to parents, then siblings, then more distant relatives
That third point catches a lot of people out. Cohabiting couples, even after decades together, even with children, even with a shared mortgage, have no automatic right to inherit from each other under English and Welsh law.
It can also mean the wrong people, or the wrong amounts
Even where the "right" people do inherit, intestacy rarely reflects what someone would actually have chosen. Maybe you'd have wanted a larger share to go to your children, or wanted to leave something to a charity that mattered to you. None of that happens automatically. It only happens if you've written it down.
It usually takes longer, too
Without a will there's no executor you've chosen, so a family member has to apply to be the administrator of your estate. At a time when everyone is grieving, that adds forms, waiting and, sometimes, disagreements about who should be doing what.
The fix is simpler than people expect
A straightforward will sets out exactly who should inherit what, names someone you trust to manage it, and can be sorted without needing to take time off work or navigate anything complicated.