The benefits of dying testate in the United Kingdom are very similar to those in the United States. These benefits and a brief discussion of intestacy rules in the UK are discussed in the article below. One interesting characteristic of intestacy rules in the UK is that the surviving spouse of a decedent with children will receive a set monetary portion of the deceased spouse’s estate, rather than a percentage, before the remainder of the estate is divided between the deceased spouse’s children.
See Emma Wall, The dangers of failing to write your will, Telegraph, May 8, 2009.
Thanks to Joel Dobris (Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law) for bringing this article to my attention.
