As I have previously discussed, new intestacy rules for intestate succession in the United Kingdom went into effect in early October. The new rules will affect many individuals since only one third of adults in the UK have a written will and one third of those are out dated or revoked, which can be caused by events such as marriage if the marriage is not expressly mentioned in the will. The rules effect estates that are valued over £250,000, which is lower than the average price of a home in the UK. The primary effect of the new rules is that they change the balance between how a spouse and children are treated in the intestacy process, with surviving spouse’s now inheriting more and children less than under the previous statutory scheme.
See Adam Palin, More Rights for Widows in Intestacy Revamp, Financial Times, Sept. 26, 2014.
Special thanks to Joel Dobris (Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law) for bringing this article to my attention.
