Limits On Intestacy Legacies From 1st February 2009
Article By Judith Bromley 14th April 2009
It has been announced that the statutory legacies (the amount that surviving spouses or civil partners are allowed to inherit if the spouse/civil partner dies without leaving a Will) increased from the 1 February 2009 as below.
The new limits are:-
• £250,000.00 (from £125,000.00) where there is a surviving spouse or civil partner and children.
• £450,000.00 (from £200,000.00) where there is a surviving spouse of civil partner and parent or sibling but no children.
Statutory Limits/when they apply
The statutory limits only apply when the Estate exceeds the minimum for smaller Estates a spouse or civil partner will inherit the entire Estate.
The rules are a follows:-
1. If there is a husband, wife or civil partner, and children:
• The spouse/partner gets the personal Chattels, the first £125,000.00 (£250,000 after 1 February 2009) and a life interest in half of what is left.
• The children of the deceased, including illegitimate and adopted children share between them half what is left straight away. If they are 18 or over, and the other half when the surviving parent dies.
2. If there is a husband, wife or civil partner, and relatives but no children:
• The husband or wife gets the personal Chattels, the first £200,000.00 (£450,000.00 after 1 February 2009) and half what is left.
• The parents of the dead person, or if they have died, the brothers and sisters of their descendants share the other half of what is left.
3. If there is a surviving husband, wife or civil partner but no other relatives:
• The surviving spouse/partner gets everything.
4. If there are children, but no living husband, wife or civil partner.
• The children share everything equally.
5. If there is no husband, wife, civil partner or children:
• Everything goes to the next available group of relatives.
6. If there are no available relatives.
• The entire estate goes to the Crown.
Whilst the increases to the legacy limits are a positive change, it is clear from the examples given above that the best thing you can do to make sure your loved ones are properly protected after your death is to make a Will.
You might think that you don't need to especially as the limits have increased but what happens if you and your spouse/civil partner and children all die in a nasty accident? Do you want your relatives to take it all? Who's relatives would take in that case? Would it be yours or your spouse's/civil partner's?
It is not an ideal situation to leave your estate in the hands of the gods as you can easily envisage your estate passing to people you would not choose to leave it to. You should therefore make the decision to write your will. We understand that It is a difficult thing to do but we cannot stress enough how important. We do try to make the experience as easy and straight forward as possible so why not make an appointment to discuss matters with us in more detail? You will be surprised at how relieved you will feel once you have done so.
For more information contact Judith Bromley on 01204 399299