The
Inheritance and Trustees’ Powers Act 2014, which came into force on 1 October
2014, has brought about a number of changes to the law of intestacy (where
individuals die without leaving a Will).
By way of
summary the main changes to the law are as follows.
· For
married couples, the surviving spouse (either the husband or the wife) will now
inherit the deceased’s entire estate in cases where there are no children or
descendants. Where the deceased has left a spouse and children/descendants the
surviving spouse will inherit the deceased’s personal chattels and a statutory
legacy of £250,000 plus half of any balance of the estate. The surviving
children/descendants in this situation would inherit the remaining half on
statutory trusts;
·
Changes have been made to the rules that had
previously disadvantaged fathers of children where the child had predeceased
their father without a Will;
·
The changes look to protect an adopted child’s
contingent interest (an interest that does not take effect until a particular
condition has been met) in an estate where a parent has died before the
adoption has taken place;
·
The definition of personal chattels has been
updated and modernised to include all tangible, movable property with a few
exceptions; and
·
The powers of trustees has been reformed in
relation to how the trustees are able to apply trust income and capital;
The Act has
implemented most of the recommendations made by the Law Commission in a report
published in 2011. For a look at the BBC’s coverage of the changes to the
law please use the following link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-29436533