A £1.5 Million Estate. No Will. The Result Was A Two-Year War.

A father had died suddenly at 62. He'd built a successful engineering firm, valued at £1.5 million on his death. He had remarried ten years prior but never got around to writing a new will.

The law of intestacy is rigid. His new wife stood to receive all his personal items, the first £322,000 of the estate, and half of everything that remained. That totalled over £900,000. His children, who had worked in the business their entire adult lives, were left with under £300,000 each. Their livelihoods were gone overnight. The subsequent legal fight for what they called 'fairness' took 28 months and cost nearly £100,000 in fees.

A Blunt Instrument

This is what happens when you die intestate. The state imposes a one-size-fits-all formula. It does not care about complex family structures, need, or verbal assurances. The father’s failure to create a valid will meant the default rules took over.

To get a different outcome, the children had to bring a claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975. This is the system's backstop. It is expensive, stressful, and deeply adversarial. It forces family members into opposing corners while legal costs mount. His inaction created a two-year battle that shattered what was left of their family.

The Unmarried Partner

The planning implication here is stark, particularly for cohabiting couples. Many people believe in the 'common-law marriage'. It does not exist in law. If you are not married or in a civil partnership, you have zero automatic inheritance rights under intestacy. Zero. Your home, your shared assets – everything could go to your partner’s distant relatives.

You would be left to make a claim as a dependant. This means proving financial dependency in court, a process that can take years and cost a fortune. A simple will, or a declaration of trust for a shared property, prevents this entirely.

The default legal process is a poor substitute for a clear plan. It is a safety net full of holes. The time to decide who gets what is now, around a table. Not later, in a courtroom. If you need to have that conversation, we are here.