If someone dies without a valid will in England, a fixed set of legal rules, not their wishes, decides who receives their money, property and possessions. This article explains how those rules work, where they leave gaps, and why wealth built over a lifetime can end up somewhere unintended.
Why a will matters more than most families assume
GOV.UK describes a will as the document that lets a person decide what happens to their money, property and possessions after death, and says it must be formally witnessed and signed to be legally valid. When there is no will, the estate is described as intestate, and a statutory order of inheritance takes over.
The rules are designed to be orderly, not personal. They know nothing about who cared for a parent, who is financially dependent, or which child already received help with a deposit. They look only at legal relationships: marriage, civil partnership, children, and then more distant relatives.
For families with property, a business or substantial savings, the gap between what the law provides and what the person would have chosen can be wide. That is the central reason intestacy features so often in conversations about how wealth is passed on.
How do the intestacy rules work for a married couple?
Citizens Advice sets out the position for England. A spouse or civil partner can inherit, including where the couple were separated but still legally married. Someone who was divorced, or whose civil partnership had legally ended, cannot inherit under these rules.
What the surviving partner receives depends on whether there are children and on the size of the estate:
- No children, or an estate of £322,000 or less: the partner inherits everything.
- Children and an estate above £322,000: the partner receives all personal possessions, the first £322,000 of the estate, and half of whatever is left. The children share the other half equally.
The £322,000 figure is the fixed net sum set by a statutory order made in 2023, which came into force on 26 July 2023, according to UK legislation. It is the amount charged to the estate in favour of the surviving spouse or civil partner where the person dies leaving children or other direct descendants.
A worked example: two estates, same family
The following is illustrative arithmetic, simplified to a married person who dies without a will, leaving a spouse and two children. It assumes every asset sits in the estate and ignores debts, tax and the value of personal possessions, which pass to the spouse in addition.
| Estate of £500,000 | Estate of £900,000 | |
|---|---|---|
| First £322,000 to spouse | £322,000 | £322,000 |
| Remainder | £178,000 | £578,000 |
| Half of remainder to spouse | £89,000 | £289,000 |
| Spouse total | £411,000 | £611,000 |
| Half of remainder to children | £89,000 | £289,000 |
| Each of two children | £44,500 | £144,500 |
Two things stand out. First, the surviving partner does not take everything once the estate passes the threshold, so children can receive a substantial share even while a parent is still alive and may need the whole estate to live on. Second, the split is mechanical: it is the same whether the children are 8 or 48.
Children, stepchildren and grandchildren
Under the Citizens Advice summary, children inherit equally whether or not their parents were married, and children legally adopted by the person who died are included. Stepchildren who were not adopted are not.
Where there is no surviving spouse or civil partner, the children inherit the whole estate in equal shares, regardless of its value. A child who is under 18 receives their share on turning 18, with a trustee managing it until then.
Grandchildren and great-grandchildren inherit only in a particular situation: where their parent or grandparent died before the person who died. They then step into that parent’s place and take that share.
For blended families this is where the rules bite hardest. A second spouse may inherit, but a partner’s children from an earlier relationship, if not adopted, receive nothing from the estate by default.
What happens to unmarried partners?
Citizens Advice states plainly that unmarried partners do not inherit under the intestacy rules. This is a point that surprises many couples who have lived together for decades. Living together, even for a long time, does not create the same inheritance rights as marriage or a civil partnership.
Some assets can still pass to a surviving partner outside the rules. Citizens Advice notes that jointly owned property and joint bank accounts can pass automatically to the surviving owner, whereas property held as tenants in common does not pass automatically and falls into the estate. How a home is owned therefore matters as much as who lives in it.
Where an unmarried partner would be left worse off, the same source says it may be possible to apply to the court for financial provision from the estate. That route needs specialist legal advice and offers no certainty, which makes it a poor substitute for a will.
What if there is no surviving family at all?
The order of relatives beyond a spouse and children is set out in more detail on GOV.UK, and it depends on the family tree and the size of the estate. Where no eligible relatives can be found, Citizens Advice says the estate passes to the Crown as bona vacantia, and the Treasury Solicitor manages it. The Crown can make grants from such an estate but is not obliged to.
For someone who wishes to benefit a close friend, a godchild, a charity or a carer, that outcome shows why the legal default is a weak substitute for a written decision.
Does inheritance tax change the picture?
Intestacy and inheritance tax are separate systems, but they interact. According to GOV.UK, the standard inheritance tax rate is 40%, charged on the part of an estate above the £325,000 threshold. No tax is normally due where everything above the threshold is left to a spouse, civil partner, charity or community amateur sports club, and any unused threshold can be added to the surviving partner’s own.
Because intestacy sends a share of a larger estate to children even when a spouse survives, it can move assets away from the spouse exemption sooner than a couple intended. Whether that creates a tax bill depends on the size of the estate and the reliefs available, including the changes covered in the April 2026 inheritance tax changes. Gifts made in life follow different timing rules, explained in how the seven-year rule works.
Can the shares be changed after death?
Sometimes, yes. Citizens Advice says beneficiaries aged 18 or over can change how an estate is shared if they all agree and the change is made within two years of the death, using a deed of family arrangement or variation. This allows a family to redirect assets, for example from a child to a surviving parent, but it depends on everyone consenting, and anyone who is a minor or unwilling can block it.
It is a repair tool, not a plan. It works only where relatives are on good terms and in agreement, and it cannot create entitlements for people the rules exclude, such as an unmarried partner, unless the beneficiaries choose to give them something.
A short list of questions to settle while there is still time
General guidance cannot substitute for advice on a specific family, but the rules above point to the questions that most often matter:
- Is there a valid, signed and properly witnessed will, and where is it kept?
- Are the people the law would favour the same people the owner would choose?
- Are unmarried partners and stepchildren covered by something other than the default rules?
- How is the main home owned, jointly or as tenants in common?
- Does the will still reflect a recent marriage, separation or birth?
The default is a decision too
Dying without a will is not neutral. It hands a set of choices to the statute book, and the outcome depends on marital status, children and the way assets are held. For married couples with modest estates the result may be close to what they would have wanted. For unmarried couples, blended families and larger estates, it can differ sharply. Reviewing the position, and recording it in a valid will, is one of the least glamorous but most effective steps in preserving wealth for the people it is meant for.
This article is general information, not personalised financial advice; rules and rates change, so check current guidance or speak to a qualified adviser.
Sources: GOV.UK; Citizens Advice; UK Legislation
