What happens if you die without a will in England and Wales?

• With children: the surviving spouse or civil partner receives the first £322,000 of the estate (for deaths on or after 26 July 2023), plus your personal belongings, and half of whatever is left. The children share the other half.
• Without children: the surviving spouse or civil partner usually inherits everything.

Property you owned jointly with your spouse normally passes to them automatically, outside the intestacy rules.

An unmarried partner, however long you have lived together, has no automatic right to inherit under the intestacy rules. If you have children, they share the estate equally. If you have no children, it goes to other relatives in a set order, such as parents or brothers and sisters. If no relative can be found, the estate passes to the Crown.

• Nobody you would choose is guaranteed to act as administrator.
• Young children can inherit outright at 18, with no trust to protect the money.
• You cannot leave anything to friends, step-children or charities.
• Second marriages and blended families are often left with outcomes nobody wanted.

A will puts you in control. A simple will costs little compared with what the rules can cost a family in unintended outcomes. See what a will costs with us, or our will writing service.

These rules apply in England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland have different rules.