Dying Without a Will: The Intestacy Rules

Die without a will and the law doesn't ask what you would have wanted — a fixed formula decides everything.

This guide sets out exactly who inherits what under the intestacy rules of England & Wales: the strict family ladder, the £322,000 statutory legacy, and the people the rules ignore entirely. Unmarried partners get nothing, however long you've been together. Stepchildren are invisible. And blended families can see an inheritance slide sideways out of the family in two deaths.

• The full inheritance ladder, rung by rung
• The unmarried partner trap — and the "common-law spouse" myth
• Why stepchildren and blended families lose out twice
• How one document opts you out of all of it

Instant PDF download. England & Wales only. Information, not legal advice — and if your situation needs a real conversation, every download includes an invitation to book a free chat with a Squiggle specialist.