Intestacy

The majority of people die without making a will. The percentage of people who make a will remains stubbornly at around 35%, despite all the campaigns to encourage people to make wills undertaken by charities and by the Law Society.

Where a person dies without making a will, he is described as dying 'intestate'. The law provides a basic framework to determine who inherits the estate (the beneficiaries) and who has the legal authority to step in and act effectively as executor (called the 'administrator').

We have extensive experience on all issues arising in intestacy, including -

• Who is entitled to act as administrator.
• Who is entitled to inherit the estate.
• What steps should be taken if individuals who are entitled to benefit under the estate have disappeared and cannot be found.
• The steps that should be taken to make a claim against the estate to override the intestacy rules, for example in favour of partners or spouses of the deceased for whom the rules do not adequately provide.
• The inheritance tax consequences of the application of the intestacy rules.
• Deeds of variation (called deeds of family arrangement) to vary the application of the intestacy rules to achieve fairer results to the various family members or to save inheritance tax.

In the case of disputes, we call on the assistance of our Disputes Resolution Unit and in particular Paul Sutton, who is a member of the Association of Contentious Probate Practitioners.

And our Family Unit has extensive experience of making claims for financial provisions against the estates of people who have died intestate.