SearchSoda Legacy Lab — What happens if you do not plan

Your situation

Nothing is sent anywhere. Change anything and all three answers update.

Relationship

Married or civil partnership Living together, not married Single, divorced or widowed

Children

If you had no spouse or children

Parents still living Brothers or sisters

Estate value£650,000

Of which, your home£450,000

A dining table laid with a single place setting

Dying without a will

The law decides, and it does not know your family

Without a will the intestacy rules apply. They are fixed, they are the same for everyone, and they take no account of what you intended.

This is the general rule, not advice. Jointly owned property may pass outside the estate entirely, and pensions and life policies usually do too. Trusts, foreign assets, businesses and claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 all change the answer. Scotland and Northern Ireland have different rules altogether.

A row of Victorian terraced rooftops and chimney stacks

Inheritance tax

Two bills, and the second is the one that hurts

Anything passing to a spouse or civil partner is exempt, so the first death often costs nothing. The bill lands when the second of you dies and the whole estate passes on together.

Figures as at the 2025/26 tax year, frozen to April 2030. Check them before relying on anything here. This ignores gifts made in the last seven years, business and agricultural relief, trusts, charitable giving above 10% (which cuts the rate to 36%), and unused allowances inherited from a late spouse, all of which can move the number a long way.

Two people sitting across a table, hands resting on it

Losing capacity

Nobody has the right to act for you automatically

Not a spouse, not an adult child. If you cannot make decisions and have signed nothing in advance, someone has to apply to the Court of Protection for permission.

With a Lasting Power of Attorney

£82

per LPA, registered once

You choose who acts, while you still can
Property and finance, and health and welfare, are separate documents
Usable as soon as it is registered and needed
No ongoing court supervision

Without one

£408

to apply, then £320 a year, plus a bond and costs

The court chooses the deputy, not you
Typically four to six months, often longer
Annual reports to the Office of the Public Guardian
Health and welfare deputyship is rarely granted at all

Court fees as at 2025/26 and subject to change. A deputyship application usually also needs a capacity assessment and a security bond, and most families instruct a solicitor, so the real cost is materially higher than the court fee alone. Meanwhile accounts can be frozen, a house cannot be sold, and care decisions are made by a best-interests process rather than by the person you would have chosen.