The importance of making a will
It has always been important to make a will but modern life makes it even more important than ever.
Where a person leaves a will, on their death their affairs are dealt with by the person they have appointed and their estate is distributed and dealt with in accordance with their wishes.
However when a person dies without a will, or intestate, this is not the case. Rules dictate who administers their estate and who gets what. Unfortunately these intestacy rules were largely written many years ago and do not reflect many of the features of modern life.
It was not that long ago that most couples in a long term relationship were married. Whilst the law does now recognise civil partnerships it does not recognise couples who live together without going through a marriage or civil partnership. Contrary to popular belief in the eyes of the law there is no such thing as a “common law” husband or wife.
It is possible that somebody who has been part of a couple who have lived together for say 40 years but never married will not inherit under their partner’s estate if there is no will. Indeed the main beneficiary of the estate could be a distant relative.
As our lives and relationships become more complicated so the likelihood of problems caused by intestacy become greater. Those likely to suffer are unmarried couples or same-sex couples who have not entered into a civil partnership or children who parents have remarried but not made provision for them in their wills. Similarly somebody who has been married, has separated but has never divorced could leave everything to their former spouse whether they want to or not. Their new partner or their children may get nothing.
Similarly the law recognises adopted children; but were somebody treats their partner’s children as if they were their own but without adopting them, they will not be recognised by the rules.
In short the rules recognise marriage, civil partnership, divorce and adoption but where people act in the same way without going through the formal process, as often happens, the law will not recognise these situations.
The intestacy rules take no account of our personal relationships so a long lost relative could benefit despite the fact that somebody has been cared or lived with somebody not related to them for many years.
The answer to these dilemmas and more is simple, make a will.
