Our standard advice is that everybody should have a Will. However, some people need one more than others.
If you die without a Will, and you’re married or in a civil partnership with children then everything held in joint names will go to your spouse/partner when you die. For anything held in your sole name, the first £322,000 will go to your spouse/partner and anything above this amount will be split between your spouse/partner and any children you have. If your spouse/partner dies before you then everything is divided between your children, no matter the value of your estate.
If you do not have a spouse/partner or children then your estate is distributed as per the flow chart below:
Surviving Children
↓
Living Parents
↓
Full Siblings
↓
Half Siblings
↓
Grandparents
↓
Aunts or Uncles
↓
Half-Aunts or Half-Uncles
↓
If there is no surviving family, then after
12 years the full estate goes to The Crown
There are some people who absolutely NEED a Will; those who aren’t married, those with no children and those who have blended families. ‘Sideways Disinheritance’ happens when a parent remarries after loss or divorce or marries someone other than the other parent of their child. If the parent doesn’t write a Will then when they die, nearly everything (see above for exceptions) will pass to the new spouse. When the new spouse dies then, as they are not related to the original child, none of the estate will pass to the deceased’s children, instead passing into the spouses’ family.
E.g. Jack is married to Jill and they have one daughter, Jenny who is 19 years old. Jack and Jill made Wills in which they left everything to each other and then to Jenny. These are known as Mirror Wills and are the most common type of Will written for a couple.
Unfortunately, Jill died after a short illness, leaving Jack with an estate valued at £300,000.
After 5 years Jack meets and marries Carol. Carol has a son Colin from her first marriage and they live very happily as a blended family with no issues. However, Jack and Carol did not realise that Wills are invalidated upon marriage, unless written soon before the marriage is to take place with the intention that it continue after the marriage. So, if Jack dies now, then his entire £300,000 estate passes to Carol. Then if she dies without a will her entire estate goes to Colin, meaning Jenny never receives any of her mother or father’s estate, something which neither Jack nor Jill would have wanted. The above scenario didn’t come about by malice on anybody’s part, but by not writing a will after they got married or in contemplation of it, Jack and Carol have made sure that their legacy is likely to be court cases and negative feelings rather than cherished memories.
Many couples who aren’t married don’t realise that if they die without a will then they don’t get anything from their partner on their death. Being ‘common law’ partners means absolutely nothing in Probate Law.
Even married/civil partner couples with children under the age of 18 should have a Will to ensure they can choose who has guardianship of their children if they were to die.
So: those who REALLY need a Will: those without children, couples who are not married or in a civil partnership and those in blended families, having a Will is a ‘Must-have’. I recommend you enact a Will as soon as possible. For everyone else it’s a ‘Should-have’.