Legal Column: If I don’t have a Will, does my estate pass directly to my spouse?
- ontargetmedia8
- Jun 2
- 2 min read
Our legal expert Hannah Thomas gives us the lowdown on Wills and why making one will protect your loved ones.
It is a common misconception that if you are married and do not have a Will in place when you die, your estate will pass to your spouse - but this is not necessarily the case. Hannah Thomas, a Partner at Harding Evans Solicitors in Whitchurch, explains.
If you die without a Will in place, where your assets go will depend on your family and financial circumstances but ultimately, distribution will be as per ‘the Intestacy Rules’.
When someone dies and they are survived by a spouse, and children or grandchildren, the way their estate is distributed will be based on the value of their estate.
If the estate is worth up to £322,000, the surviving spouse will inherit everything; BUT
If the estate is worth more than £322,000, the surviving spouse will receive all personal possessions plus the first £322,000 in assets. They will then however only receive half of the rest of the estate.
The Intestacy Rules do not change if you do not have a good relationship with certain family members. Therefore, an estranged child would have the same entitlement under the Rules as a child with whom you have a close relationship.
We recently wrote a Will for a client whose estate was worth approximately £4million. The testator had up until this point never written a Will as was under the impression that his estate would pass to his spouse. What he hadn’t taken into consideration was that he had an estranged child who he had never had a relationship with. Dying without a Will would have meant the estranged child would have received half of anything they left over £322,000, which in this circumstance could have amounted to a considerable sum. This didn’t align with his wishes and therefore a Will and appropriate personal statement were prepared to ensure the distribution of his estate reflected his wishes.
The Intestacy Rules in England & Wales also apply where a person leaves a valid Will but it does not distribute all their ‘estate’. This can happen for various reasons, for example, where named beneficiaries have died. It is important that you keep your Will updated - we recommend reviewing every five years, just to make sure everything is still as you wish it to be.
It is important for everyone to plan proactively for the future. If you don’t, then where your assets go after you pass will be out of your hands.
