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Lottery of Childless Married Couples | | Date Added: February 09, 2009 12:25:49 PM | | The obvious winners are the surviving spouses (Civil Partners) of the first to die, for married couples (Civil Partner) with children the spouse (Civil Partner) now gets the chattels and the first £250,000 of the deceased estate (up from £125,000). Where there are no children the amount is £450,000 (up from £200,000) plus chattels.
I hear you say this is surely a good thing, with these increases the spouses (Civil Partners) now don’t lose as much of the deceased estate when their loved one dies. Who could the losers be?
The rules governing the disposal of an estate are strict and determine who gets what if you die without making a Will and although the surviving spouse (Civil Partner) does better under the new figures, there will be those that lose out by the increase.
Who are the losers? They are the next of kin to the first deceased who are likely never to inherit as the survivor’s relatives take everything on second death, should there be no relatives the Duchy of Cornwall or the State takes everything. Let’s look at an example: Mr and Mrs Smith had no children, Mr Smith had a brother and sister and Mrs Smith a mother, her only living relative is in residential care. Mr Smith died this week leaving an estate valued at £200,000 without making a Will, which together with his personal chattels now pass totally to Mrs Smith. Mrs Smith is not in good health and she does not have a Will. If she dies having not made a Will her estate, which now includes her husbands estate, having a total value of £375,000 would pass solely to her mother should she still be alive and would be used for her care home fees which is currently met by the local authority. When her mother dies the estate would pass to the Crown as there are no living relatives. Mr Smith’s brother and sister received nothing from his estate as he unfortunately died first. The lottery, of who dies first, robbed Mr Smith’s brother and sister of any inheritance. Childless married couples (Civil Partners) are entered into this lottery without knowing, which almost always means that one side of the family will be disinherited.
There are likely to be more losers, such as the children of a parent that remarries, when the new spouse’s children will inherit and the step children will get nothing. Robert Bird of Affairs in Order Ltd recommends that we should all consider our own circumstances carefully, take professional advice and not be one of the millions who put off making a Will and by doing so, run the risk of the state determining how their assets are distributed on their death. |
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