The Inheritance and Trustees’ Powers Bill will reform existing legal provisions for inheritance on ‘intestacy’, the legal terms for individuals who die leaving assets without a valid will.
The planned reforms include:
*Measures to ensure that all marital assets pass to a surviving spouse in a marriage or civil partnership, when there are no children or other descendants of the person who has died.
*Measures to simplify the division of assets when there are children or other descendants.
*The removal of current laws which can disadvantage unmarried fathers when their children die without a will.
*The removal of current laws which can prevent adopted children from receiving an inheritance from a biological parent if they were adopted after that parent’s death.
The bill is based on a Law Commission report published in December 2011. It is expected to reach its second reading in the House of Lords on October 22 this year.
