What is it?

Dying intestate is the way that we describe a person who has died without making a Will or who has made a Will that is invalid because of improper execution. Approximately two out of three individuals who die in England and Wales do so without having made a proper Will.   

What about your children?

Dying intestate is not just about the money. If you die intestate without provision having been made for children under the age of 18 it is the state and the courts who decide who will be granted parental control over them. This will affect their education, welfare, benefit and maintenance. Is that what you want?

Who gets what?

As a result, property passes in accordance with the provisions of the Administration of Estates Act 1925 as subsequently amended, that is, to your relatives but not necessarily to those who you would have intended such as your spouse/civil partner or children. It prevents you from ensuring that your estate is protected and your beneficiaries are catered for correctly.

If you are married and have children your spouse/civil partner receives the first £250,000.00 plus interest at 6% from the date of death until payment and a life (controlling) interest in half of the remainder. The children receive the rest in equal shares. On the surviving spouse’s death the fund from which they were receiving income goes to the children upon them having attained the age of 18.

If no children but your parents are alive, your spouse receives the first £450,000.00 plus half the balance. The rest is shared between your surviving relatives. The surviving spouse can capitalise their interest and can elect to take the matrimonial home (providing they were living in the same at the date of death) in satisfaction of part or all of their entitlement under Intestates Estate Act 1952, sched 2 para 1(1). Where the matrimonial home’s value is greater than the surviving spouse’s entitlement they can make up the shortfall from their own resources.

The surviving spouse will take the whole estate in the event that there are no surviving relatives at all.

Where there is no surviving spouse but there are children the latter take the estate equally with grandchildren inheriting equally in the event that their parents pre-decease the deceased.

If the deceased is not survived by a spouse/civil partner or issue then the estate passes to the deceased’s parents equally or, alternatively, if the parents are dead then to the deceased’s brothers and sisters of the whole blood and their issue equally or, alternatively, if none of the above to the deceased’s brothers and sisters of the half blood and their issue equally and if none to the grandparents equally. If none of the above survived the deceased then the estate is taken by aunts and uncles of the half blood and their issue equally.

If none of the above then to the crown!