Dying Without a Will - What Happens Next

Scores of people will not care about writing a will for a number of reasons, it can be a difficult conversation to have with family so people put it off, and some individuals might not believe they possess enough assets or money to justify a will. Writing a will not only helps keeps everything in order and simplifies the handling of your estate after passing on, but it is not an expensive thing to do either, with the cheapest will writing available from 60 from some solicitors.


So what exactly happens upon the death of someone who does not have a will? To translate it into legal terminology 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 nation state will have some sort of series order preserved in law, for example purposes we will use the run 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 prime outline of the order will in all possibility be the same in most states and only fluctuate when it comes to the finer details. Whichever country you are in one aspect is bound to be universal, 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 chain better be set, as for the succession it works like this, the spouse or civil partner will come before all others, next step down is the deceased's child or children then followed by parents, if the late person has a partner but was unmarried they will not included in the succession. From this point it slides down into grandparents, uncles and aunties, if there is definitely no one to conduct the estate, "The Crown" will assign someone, though if there is no one to conduct the estate it probably means there is also no one to inherit; ergo the estate will pass to The Crown. Just in case anyone is perplexed by this, The Crown simply means the Government in this case; the estate will pass to the taxman 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 detailed information, it will very rarely fall this far down the hierarchy.


To become the executor an application for a grant of "Letters of Administration" will be necessary, 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 deceased's accounts. To receive the grant, you can make a personal application or the solicitor you have working on the probate can make the application on your behalf, the choice is yours. At this point it is important to point out that, while the word probate is used here, to be exact in law and legal language it only refers to a case where there is a will, however in practice, even without a will on hand this part of the administration is also called probate, doubtless just to dodge more confusion in the process. Another thing to be aware of in regards to the grant is that before it can be granted, any Inheritance Tax (IHT) due on the estate must be paid to HMRC, the current IHT upper limit at the time of writing stands at 325k, if the estates assets break above this level 40% tax is levied by the Treasury. The rare time a grant will not be required is if the estate is held joint with someone else, clearly the other holder of the estate will deal with what comes about next, also if the estate is valued below 5,000 a grant is probably not needed either, although that will depend on personal conditions.


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 modifications along a similar line. The succession line for administration will again be along a related line with the rest of the Britain, yet the devil is in the detail and particular people can leapfrog upwards depending on circumstances, for a good comparison between Scotland and the rest of the UK look at the table on this website: 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 - 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.


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