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Wills & intestacy — 21 August 2026 — by Laurence Gould
It's the misunderstanding we meet more than any other: the belief that after enough years together, the law treats you as good as married. It doesn't — not after ten years, not after forty, not with children. Here's what actually happens, and the small amount of work that prevents it.
Die without a valid will and the rules of intestacy distribute your estate to a fixed list of relatives: spouse or civil partner first, then children, parents, siblings and outward from there. An unmarried partner appears nowhere on that list. Nothing passes to them automatically — not savings, not possessions, and not the home, however long you've shared it. If there are children, the children inherit everything; if not, the estate travels to parents or siblings. The person you built your life with can be left negotiating with your relatives for their own furniture.
You can see the full mechanics for your own circumstances in about a minute using the intestacy checker on our homepage.
A partner who lived with you for at least the two years before death can apply to the court for provision from the estate under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975. It exists, and it sometimes works — but understand what it is: litigation against your partner's own family, in grief, at legal cost, with an uncertain outcome, for a "maintenance" level of provision rather than what you'd actually have wanted them to have. It is the safety net of last resort, not a plan.
Pension death benefits and life insurance written in trust usually pass by nomination — the form you filled in, possibly decades ago. That can rescue an unmarried partner even where intestacy fails them… or quietly deliver a pension to an ex from twenty years back because nobody updated the form. Nominations sit alongside your will, not inside it, and reviewing them is part of any proper estate plan.
Everything above is solved by an afternoon's work: wills naming each other, done properly; a check on how the home is owned, changing it if it points the wrong way; nominations reviewed; and — while the pen is out — lasting powers of attorney, because an unmarried partner has no more right to deal with the bank or the doctors during your lifetime than they do to inherit after it. For couples with children from previous relationships, a life interest trust can protect the survivor and each side's children at once.
None of this requires getting married. It requires writing down what you both already assume — before the law writes down something else on your behalf.
A free consultation puts the whole picture straight — online or at your home, fixed fee agreed before any work begins.