Most people know they should have a Will, and most have not got around to it. It never feels pressing when you are healthy and busy. But around half of UK adults died without a valid Will in 2024, rising to over 56% in 2025, and for each of those families the absence of that one document created complications at the worst possible time.
What it means to die "intestate"
When someone dies without a valid Will they die intestate. Their estate is distributed not by their wishes but by the fixed Rules of Intestacy, set out in the Administration of Estates Act 1925. These rules follow a strict hierarchy designed over a century ago. The result: people you expected to inherit may get nothing, and people you never intended to benefit may get everything.
Who inherits under the rules?
- Married, no children: your spouse inherits everything. An unmarried partner receives nothing.
- Married with children: your spouse takes your possessions plus a statutory legacy (currently £322,000); anything above that is split half to the spouse, half between the children.
- Unmarried with children: the children inherit everything equally; your partner receives nothing.
- No spouse or children: it passes to parents, then siblings, then wider family, and ultimately the Crown if there is no one.
Left out entirely, regardless of your relationship: unmarried partners, stepchildren (unless legally adopted), friends, carers, charities, and godchildren.
The biggest misconception: common-law marriage
Around half of Britons wrongly believe living together gives the same rights as marriage. It does not. Common-law marriage does not exist in English law and never has. However long you have lived together, an unmarried partner has no automatic right to inherit anything owned in their partner's sole name. Their only route is a claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, proving financial dependency within six months of probate, distressing, expensive and uncertain while grieving. A Will prevents this entirely.
How it plays out
The unmarried couple: twelve years together, two children, no Will. Sole-name savings and pensions pass to the children under intestacy; the surviving partner receives nothing from them. If the home was held as tenants in common, even the deceased's share passes under intestacy, leaving the survivor potentially co-owning with their own children.
The blended family: a remarried man dies without a Will; his estate passes to his current wife, and his children from his first marriage receive nothing, then or when she later leaves her estate to her own children.
The young parent: a woman in her thirties dies unmarried; her estate is held in trust for her young children until 18, her partner cannot access it, and there is no named guardian, so the courts may decide who raises them.
What a Will gives you that intestacy cannot
- Control over who inherits, and in what shares
- A named executor you trust, empowered from the moment of your death
- A guardian for your children, the only place you can formally name one
- Protection for an unmarried partner, the only reliable way under English law
- Specific gifts, to a person or charity, made binding
- A reduced risk of family disputes
Marriage, divorce, and the Will you forgot
Getting married revokes a previous Will, so an un-updated pre-marriage Will leaves you intestate. Divorce does not fully revoke a Will: gifts to a former spouse are treated as if they had died, but the rest stands. Both are why a Will should be reviewed whenever your circumstances change, and at least every three to five years.
The cost of a professionally prepared Will is a fraction of what intestacy complications generate in legal fees and conflict, and the emotional cost falls entirely on those you leave behind. It takes two home appointments and can be in place within weeks. We help families across North Somerset, Bristol and Bath write clear, legally sound Wills, in plain English, in the comfort of their own home.