Wouldn’t it be boring if we all made wills.

Imagine the scene. The drawing room of Downton:-

Grantham: I’ve had a letter from Murray.

Mary: Oh?

Grantham: Yes, he says probate has just been granted, and Matthew’s estate should be wound up before Christmas.

Lady Grantham (to Mary): why my dear, that’s marvellous. You will inherit Matthew’s share of the estate and can pass it on to George when he is good and ready.

Grantham: Yes, and that way we can avoid any unnecessary tax. Is something the matter, Mary?

Mary: Oh Pu-paah, I think I may have done something we may all come to regret, not least me.

Grantham: Lucky for us Matthew left everything in trust. So the estate at least is beyond your foolishness. What is it Carson?

Carson: My Lord, there is a rumour going round that George, how can put this, may not be Mrs Crawley’s grandson.

Grantham: It seems that Matthew thought about that too. He mentions George by name, so his parentage doesn’t come into it. The Estate is Safe! Although I can’t say I’m altogether happy about it passing to an illegitimate heir.

Lady Grantham (smiling broadly): Ohhh Raburrt! You’re SO old FASHioned!

Carson: …And my Lord, there is a young lady from the village.

Dowager Countess: Well, there’s a turn up for the books. (aside) I didn’t think he had it in him.

Mrs Crawley: Matthew mentioned something about flexibility in the will to cover any indiscretions. Now I think I finally understand what he meant.

Such banal tedium should be the stuff of every estate administration. And even if the more untidy don’t quite reach the high drama of Downton Abbey, (believe it, some do), there can be some nasty surprises where there is no will.

Astonishingly almost two thirds of adults don’t have wills. They are “intestate” -which means?

Intestacy

“Common law partners”

The first thing to note is that there is no such thing as a common law spouse. Unless you are married or in a civil partnership, your partner stands to get nothing.

Married or in a civil partnership – no children

Even if you are married or in a civil parthership your partner’s rights are limited, unless you have no children. With no children your spouse/civil partner would inherit everything – provided they survived you of course. And there is a reasonable chance the two of you will be travelling together, and therefore die at the same time (then the law provides that everything from the older’s estate goes to the younger, and from there to the younger’s brothers and sisters, parents etc – the family of the older gets nothing).

Married/Civil partners with children

With children your spouse/civil partner gets your personal possessions, a statutory legacy of £250,000, and a life interest in half the rest. A life interest means the income for the rest of the survivor’s life. So you’d have the expense and inconvenience of a trust and trustees, even if your estate is not large. Your children will inherit what is left in the trust when the survivor dies, and will also inherit the rest of your estate as and when they reach 18, whether or not they are ready for it.

There is nothing really to recommend an intestacy other than perhaps saving you the cost and bother of making a will.

What about jointly held assets?

Jointly held assets (typically a house and joint bank accounts) pass to the surviving joint owner automatically even if a will provides otherwise. But that is only the case if they are not held as “tenants in common” – take the trouble to check that; it is very dangerous to assume.

This is helpful in providing for a spouse/partner, but not when passing assets to children who are rarely joint owners of assets with their parents. And what happens when the survivor dies – presumably intestate?

So there is a slim chance that the combination of an intestacy and carefully structured joint ownership of assets gets round the need for a will.

But what if it doesn’t – is there anything that can be done by beneficiaries after the death?

Two things, but neither is straightforward:

The first is a variation. You can vary the intestacy to whatever you want, but it needs the co-operation of any beneficiary whose share would be reduced. If they include minors the court will need to approve the variation on their behalf – expensive, and quite possibly fruitless particularly since you would have to persuade the court that giving up entitlement would be in the child’s best interest.

The second is to make a claim on the estate under the Inheritance Provision for Family and Dependants Act. This law was passed to ensure that those for whom a person was financially responsible don’t get “cut out” or ignored in a will. It does not help someone who merely thinks the distribution is “unfair”. A spouse can expect to claim what they would have received on a divorce, and anyone else what is reasonable for their maintenance.

And if you have a business?

Well, the rules on intestacy are the same, so work out who will be inherit your shareholding. They are the ones with whom your fellow shareholders and directors will be negotiating in future, whether as continuing participants in the business or to exercise any pre-emption rights, or simply buying shares in after your death.

What to do about making a will.

Do see a solicitor.

Of course it is more expensive than a DIY will, or probably a licensed will writer. But you will get advice – on Inheritance tax, and on how you should hold your assets (for example in your own name, or jointly with another) – from someone who has experience of winding up estates after a death, and who is therefore able to give you advice on what works best in practice rather than simply in theory.

You may be asked to complete a questionnaire about assets and who you’d like to benefit. That is to ensure that the advice given is appropriate to the value and composition of your estate, and the ages of your prospective beneficiaries. It will concentrate your mind, and save your solicitor time (and therefore fees).

You will also be asked who should be Executors – those responsible for making the decisions about your estate after you have died and seeing that the terms of your will are carried out; and guardians for minor children.

A good solicitor will also talk to you about powers of attorney and generally what you should do to protect your estate as you get older and perhaps more vulnerable.

There will be those who say that paying a lawyer to write a will is a waste of money. That is music to a lawyers ears of course, because there is much more money to be made from an estate that is the subject of a dispute or a badly written will than there is in writing the will in the first place.

So let’s return to Downton. Matthew hasn’t made a will. We are several series in the future.

Grantham: Good news! Matthew’s estate is finalised at last.

Lady Mary: Just in time for George’s 18th birthday.

Grantham: All that’s left now is for me to settle with Murray.

Tom (looking at the bill): Boi Gally -this’ll cost you the family silver!

Grantham: I thought I’d sell my grandmother instead , I never liked that painting.

Jeremy Curtis is a partner at law firm Pemberton Greenish LLP