If I Die Without Leaving a Will, What Happens To My Possessions?

Countless people will not consider writing a will for a number of reasons, it can be a difficult chat to have with family so individuals postpone it, and some persons might not believe they possess enough assets or money to justify a will. Writing a will not only helps keeps everything in order and alleviates the handling of your estate after death, but it is not an expensive thing to do either, with the cheapest will writing available from 60 from some solicitors.

So when someone dies without a will, what happens next? To recode it into legal language it would be called dying “Intestate”, at this point it is the law/state that will have final say on who deals with the probate and who inherits. The court will not just allot Joe Bloggs off the street to deal with the estate, each country will have some sort of succession order enshrined in law, for example purposes we will use the sequence order in England, Wales and N. Ireland (Scotland has its own, more complex succession order, so it’s best to keep it separate), it goes without saying the key outline of the order will in all possibility be the same in most countries and only fluctuate when it comes to the finer details. Whichever state you are in one fact is certain to be widespread, and that is the fact that depending on the complexity of the estate, it can take anywhere from months to years for the probate to be finalised on an estate. So whomever is at the apex of the succession ladder better be set, as for the succession it works like this, the spouse or civil partner will come before all others, next stair down is the deceased’s child or children then followed by parents, if the departed has a partner but was unmarried they are not included in the succession. After this point it slides down into grandparents, uncles and aunties, if there is absolutely no one to process the estate, “The Crown” will arrange for someone, though if there is no one to conduct the estate it almost certainly means there is also no one to inherit; thus the estate will pass to The Crown. Just in case anyone is baffled by this, The Crown simply means the Government in this case; the estate will pass to the tax collector to do with as it sees fit. If you are worried it might fall this far, go to: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Governmentcitizensandrights/Death/Preparation/DG_10029802 for more in depth information, it will very rarely fall this far down the hierarchy.

To become the administrator an application for a grant of “Letters of Administration” will be required; it will act as legal proof for banks, building societies and any other organisations you have to deal with that you and you alone have the right to access the departed’s accounts. To obtain get hold of the grant, you can make a personal application or the solicitor you have working on the probate can make the submission on your behalf, the choice is yours. At this point it is important to point out that, while the word probate is used here, officially, in law and legal language it only refers to a case where there is a will, though in practice, even without a will available this part of the administration is also called probate, doubtless just to duck more confusion in the process. One more thing to be aware of in relation to the grant is that before it can be granted, any Inheritance Tax (IHT) outstanding from the estate must be paid to the tax collector, the current IHT upper limit at the time of writing stands at 325,000, if the estates assets break above this level 40% tax is charged by the Treasury. The one time a grant will not be needed is if the estate is held joint with someone else, obviously the other holder of the estate will deal with what comes about next, additionally if the estate is valued below 5k a grant is probably not needed either, although that will depend on personal circumstances.

When it comes to Scotland, dying without a will falls under the Succession (Scotland) Act 1964, which is amended when it needs to be, i.e. to include civil partnerships and amendments along a related line. The succession line for administration will again be along a comparable line with the rest of the United Kingdom, nevertheless the devil is in the detail and particular people can leapfrog upwards depending on circumstances, for a good contrast between Scotland and the rest of the UK look at the table on this website: http://www.primewills.co.uk/dying_without_will.htm. To learn more about who administers a Will-less estate this webpage should also have all the information you need – http://www.scotland.gov.uk/publications/2003/08/17011/21439.

So that wraps up what happens without a will, I think you’ll agree it’s worth writing one and sparing loved ones such hassle at a stressful time, offering peace of mind to you and your family.

Debi McGrady works at JustLifeInsurance.com a site dedicated to providing free life insurance advice, and market leading life insurance quotes.

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