I have children but no Will
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Your children are your legal heirs, but dying without a Will means you lose control of three things: who looks after them, when they inherit and how much your partner gets. Under intestacy, children inherit (held in trust until exactly 18), no guardians are appointed by you and an unmarried partner inherits nothing. A short Will fixes all three.
You have children but have never made a Will, or your old Will is out of date.
What happens legally
With no valid Will, the statutory intestacy rules in the Administration of Estates Act 1925 apply automatically:
- If you are married or in a civil partnership with children: your spouse receives your personal possessions, a fixed statutory legacy (currently £322,000) and half of anything above that; your children share the other half, held in trust until they turn 18.
- If you are single, divorced or widowed: your children inherit your whole estate equally, again held in trust until 18.
- If you have an unmarried partner: they inherit nothing under intestacy, however long you have been together — there is no common-law marriage in England and Wales.
- No Will means no guardians of your choosing for children under 18 — if both parents die, the court decides who raises them.
- Money passing to children under intestacy is released to them outright at 18, with no power to hold it longer.
- Young children could inherit a large sum at 18 before they are ready to manage it.
- An unmarried partner can be left with nothing and may have to bring a stressful Inheritance Act 1975 claim.
- Without appointed guardians, relatives may disagree over who raises your children.
- The rigid intestacy split can force the sale of the family home to pay each share.
- Make a Will that names guardians for any children under 18.
- Use a Will trust so children inherit at an age you choose (commonly 21 or 25), not automatically at 18.
- Provide for your partner explicitly — intestacy will not.
- Name executors you trust to manage the estate and any children's trust.
Who manages your children's inheritance until they are 18?
Children under 18 cannot legally own or give a receipt for an inheritance, so someone has to hold it for them. Under intestacy that job falls to the administrators — the people who apply for letters of administration. Where children inherit, there must normally be at least two administrators, or a trust corporation.
The administrators hold each child's share on what are called statutory trusts. They have powers under the Trustee Act 1925 to:
- use income from the fund for a child's maintenance, education or benefit
- advance capital early for something that benefits the child, such as university costs
- invest the money while it is held
The person managing the money will not necessarily be the person bringing up your children. That can work well, but it can also cause friction if the carer has to ask relatives for funds. Each child's share is then paid out in full on their 18th birthday.
A Will lets you choose the trustees yourself, decide whether they can help the guardian with the cost of raising your children and set a later age for inheritance.
Sources
- Administration of Estates Act 1925 (intestacy) — legislation.gov.uk
- Children Act 1989 (appointment of guardians) — legislation.gov.uk
- GOV.UK — Inheritance: rules when there is no Will; Make a Will
- Reviewed by
- ClearLegacy editorial team
- Last reviewed
- June 2026
- Next review
- December 2026
- Jurisdiction
- England & Wales
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