Chris Thorpe looks at what happens to an individual’s estate on death if there is no valid will.
When the actor and comedian Rik Mayall died in June 2014, many were astonished to learn that he did so intestate (i.e., he had no will outlining what was to happen to his estate); there was clearly no tax planning either, resulting in a £60,000 inheritance tax bill.
Whilst this was a fairly high-profile intestacy case, over 51,000 letters of administration were issued in the UK in 2024 (i.e. where estates were intestate), so Rik Mayall was not the only one.
