Intestacy Laws

In England & Wales, if you die without making a Will, your Estate will be distributed according to the laws of Intestacy. These rules differ slightly for Scotland & Northern Ireland. N.B. The Legitim laws impact on this in Scotland.

Many people forget that marriage automatically annuls any Will made before the date of marriage.

• A Spouse but no children, parent, brother, sister, nephew or niece.
  • The spouse takes everything
• A Spouse and children
  • Spouse takes
    • £125,000 (Absolute Interest)
    • Personal 'Chattels' (Car, Furniture, Pictures, Clothing, Jewellery, etc)
    • Life Interest (i.e. income only) in half the balance
  • Children (on reaching age 18 or earlier marriage) take
    • Remaining half
    • On Spouse's death the capital that was providing an income for the Spouse
• A Spouse, no children, but parents, brothers, sisters, nephews or nieces
  • Spouse takes
    • £200,000
    • Personal 'Chattels' (Car, Furniture, Pictures, Clothing, Jewellery, etc,
    • Half the Residue
  • Remaining Half of Residue goes to whoever is living in order of precedence
    • Parents (if none then)
    • Brothers and Sisters (nephews and nieces step into their parents shoes if their parents are dead)
• No Spouse, everything goes in order of precedence to:
  • Children, but if none
  • Parents, but if none
  • Brothers and Sisters (nephews and nieces step into their parents shoes if their parents are dead), but if none
  • Half-Brothers & Half-Sisters, but if none
  • The Children of Half-Brothers & Half-Sisters, but if none
  • Grandparents, but if none
  • Half-Uncles & Half-Aunts, but if none
  • HM Treasury

Where part of the residuary estate includes a dwelling house in which the surviving spouse lived at the date of death, the surviving spouse has the right to have the house as part of the Absolute Interest or towards the capital value of the life interest, where relevant.

It is becoming increasingly more important to write a Will and to write it so as to be as efficient as possible for IHT purposes. Using appropriate Trusts is an integral part of Will writing and IHT planning as this can add much needed flexibility. Both Wills and Intestacy involve waiting for Probate (Court & Tax permission to distribute your Estate according to your Will/Intestacy Laws) which can take a long time. Trusts do not have to wait for Probate unless they are formed from the Will. If you rely on Wills alone, then nothing can happen until Probate has been granted. If you want to be able to help the surviving spouse to tide things over until Probate has been granted, you will need to have some form of appropriate Trust planning in place in advance.

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