Nobody likes thinking about death. It feels far off, and something more urgent always seems to come first. But if you die without a will, the law decides who gets your money, and the result is often not what you would have chosen.
You are far from alone if you have put it off. According to the Money and Pensions Service, 56% of UK adults do not have a will. Here is exactly what happens to your money if you are one of them.
What Happens If You Die Without a Will?
If you die without a will that is legally valid, you have died intestate. A fixed set of rules, called the rules of intestacy, then decides who inherits your estate.
Your wishes no longer count. It does not matter how often you talked to family about your plans or how obvious they seemed. Instead, the law applies a set formula to everything you own.
One important point before we go further. The rules below apply in England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own intestacy rules, so check the right ones for where you live.
Who Inherits If You Die Without a Will in England and Wales?
The rules follow a strict order of priority. Unfortunately, they throw up some surprising results for many families.
If You Are Married or in a Civil Partnership
With no children, your spouse or civil partner inherits everything. With children, the picture changes once your estate passes £322,000.
In that case, your spouse receives your personal belongings, the first £322,000 and half of anything above it. Your children then share the other half equally. If the estate is worth less than £322,000, your spouse inherits it all.
If You Are Single With No Children
Your parents inherit first. If they have died, your brothers and sisters share the estate, followed by more distant relatives such as grandparents, aunts and uncles.
If the law finds nobody eligible, your estate passes to the Crown. In other words, the government gets the lot. You can check your own situation with the GOV.UK intestacy tool.
The Common Law Marriage Myth
This catches out more couples than anything else. Common law marriage does not exist in the UK. Unless you are married or in a civil partnership, your partner has no automatic right to inherit anything.
That stays true whether you have lived together for five years or twenty five. So the house, savings and investments could all go to relatives you rarely see, while your partner gets nothing.
Your partner could go to court and claim support from the estate. However, that process is slow, stressful and expensive, and success is never guaranteed.
What Happens to Your Children If You Die Without a Will?
Intestacy rules do protect children, but not always in the way you would choose.
Stepchildren Can Be Left Out
Stepchildren and foster children inherit nothing under the rules unless you legally adopted them. As a result, children you raised as your own could miss out entirely.
Money Is Locked Away Until 18
If your children are under 18, their inheritance sits in a trust until they reach that age. Then they receive it all at once, with no conditions.
By contrast, a will lets you delay that money to a later age or attach conditions. Many parents would prefer that to handing a large sum to an 18 year old.
Why Probate Is Harder When You Die Without a Will
Beyond who gets what, there is the paperwork. When you die without a will, you have not named an executor, so the law decides who can apply to manage the estate.
This usually takes longer and invites more arguments. Relatives may disagree about who should be in charge and what each person is owed. Meanwhile, legal fees build up and relationships suffer.
All of this lands on your family at the very moment they are grieving. So a will protects more than your money. It also protects the people you leave behind from a lot of avoidable stress.
What a Will Lets You Do Instead
A will gives you control that the intestacy rules never can. For example, you can:
- leave specific items or sums to specific people
- include an unmarried partner, stepchildren or friends
- leave money to a charity or cause you care about
- choose guardians for young children
- name executors you trust
- set up a trust with conditions for your children
Inheritance Tax Planning
A will is also a key part of inheritance tax planning. Currently, the nil rate band is £325,000, and anything above your allowances may face 40% tax.
When a married couple uses both nil rate bands and both residence nil rate bands in full, they can pass on up to £1 million tax free. That kind of planning, though, needs careful wording in a will. Our guide to passing money down without losing it to tax explains more.
How Much Does a Will Cost in the UK?
Less than most people expect, which makes it even harder to justify the risk of leaving it. A simple will from a solicitor often costs a few hundred pounds, and online will services are usually cheaper still.
More complex wills with trusts or business assets cost more. Even so, the price is small next to the cost of getting it wrong.
Interestingly, many people put it off because they think they are not wealthy enough to need one. In reality, the rules often hurt ordinary families most: a home, some savings and a partner they never got round to marrying.
Don’t Die Without a Will
If you die without a will, the law decides everything. Your partner could get nothing, distant relatives could inherit instead and stepchildren could lose out completely.
Writing a will takes a few hours and costs very little. If you have been putting it off, let this be the nudge that finally gets it done.
Content on IceburgWealth.com is for general information only and is not financial advice. I am not a regulated financial adviser, and tax rules and figures can change. Always do your own research and consider speaking to a qualified adviser before making any financial decision.
This article is part of our Saving and Budgeting Guide, where you will find every related article in one place.