What would happen to my partners money if he dies and we weren't married?

[grannyinapram]

Not a huge amount but we are saving for a house so he has a couple of thousand in his account and I have the same in mine.
We have dc and have lived together since being teens.
But getting married is a hard one because althoufh we are enganged, we don't want to get married yet. The 'wedding' isn't happening until after we buy the house anyway because we don't want to waste money on a crappy affair when we are renting.
Priorities and all that. Covid has pushed both further out of our reach.

I was just reading the will thread where the husband won't write one and it made me wonder what will happen to our money if we died?
We aren't even 30 yet so it seems a little presumptuous to write a will, however DH (not yet lol) has a fairly dangerous job so I'm always worried of the 'what ifs'

I was under the impression that when he died I could just go on his phone and put all the money in my bank and close the account, and vice versa. However I'm not sure now. is that legal? would anyone else have a claim? does it go to our kids? no idea.

Age is irrelevant when it comes to wills. You should write a will as soon as you have DC, or property, or savings, or items that you wish to leave to specific people. I made a will when I bought my first house in my 20's, and changed it when I got married, and then again after divorce.

If you are not married then you have no claim on his money. If you buy a house together then make sure that you each own your half, then will it to each other or in trust for the DC, whatever you want to do (take legal advice).

If somebody dies without a will then the Intestacy rules apply and unmarried partners get nothing, it will go to your DC.

www.citizensadvice.org.uk/family/death-and-wills/who-can-inherit-if-there-is-no-will-the-rules-of-intestacy/

If you have pensions then you have to nominate a beneficiary, you can do the same with life insurance.

My will cost less than £100, and you can have mirror wills drawn up if you each want to do the same thing.

You'd be arrested for transferring money.
Can he put you down as next of kin with the bank.
I'd assume his assets would go to his children if unmarried.

Make out wills.

Check insurances.

Get married. Years ago a couple of friends nipped out for lunch, I went with my friend. We met her fiancé and his pal at the registry. They got married, we had a pub lunch and went back to work. Sometimes people confuse getting married with 'weddings'. I know some people say you don't need to marry just get all the paperwork in order, probably true but so much easier to marry.

People die at all ages, too late to do it after.

It isnt just about the money it's also about next of kin. If he had a serious accident and was incapacitated at the moment presumably his parents would be in control of communicating with medical staff.

Equal to that if you both were to die do you know what will happen to your children? It isnt a case that grandparents can just pick them up - without a legal guardian or gets complicated especially if say two aunts/grandparents want them to live with them.

at the “I’d just go to his phone and transfer the money”. WTF?!

It cost us less than £150 last year to get married. That was to give notice, book the ceremony and registrar and 2 copies of the marriage certificate

How about looking into a civil partnership?

I think your real priority should be thinking what happens to the children if we both die eg God forbid in a car accident. That's not something that can be sorted out on your phone.
Please write your wills including naming guardians for the children, and making provision for them with life insurance.

The day you have children you should make a will. It’s not just about the money but about their security if both their parents died before they are 18, so stop faffing about and sort out wills having talked very carefully to the people about who could/would take them if something happened to you.

We made a will when my dc was a baby, again when he was about 10 as he would have gone to different people at that age from when he was a baby and now he is 18 we need to do our wills again. It is never ever presumptuous. It is good housekeeping.

Legally you have no different position from someone he just has sex with, I'm afraid - i.e. no connection at all. Kids and houseshare make no difference.

You are going to die. You need wills as soon as you can and marriage/civil partnership. Not the same as a frilly frock party. Wills need to be made ' in anticipation ' of marriage as otherwise it invalidates them (England)

You also need guardians for the kids in the hopefully non event that you both die before they are adults.

You say you thought you’d just “go on his phone”.
Let’s be morbid and wonder what would happen if he had an accident and you never saw his phone again because it got lost in the hospital A&E?

Seriously - you both need wills urgently.

If he dies and you are unmarried without a will the money isn’t yours OP and you would not be the next of kin either (that would be his parents)

Frankly you should have a will anyway to decide what happens to your children etc otherwise if you both died they would have to briefly be wards of the state

Ffs get wills written! Far better then hoping he's not got his phone on him if he has an accident. Also sort out a joint account or savings. You being the main beneficiary of a will wont help you for the year following a death. You wouldn't be able to touch the money til probate has gone through.

I would get married before buying a house....even if you don’t tell anyone and have your wedding later. Your not secure otherwise he can change his will at any time without your knowledge

You have children. You need to be more responsible, even if you are in your 20’s. We had a friend’s husband die suddenly mid-20’s at work. Preventable and tragic accident. Id get married. You can have a wedding later.

Write a will ! You can even do your
Own , instructions on Gov.uk

You need a will OP. As others have said, transferring his money after death would be theft.

Not only the money will go to your kids but all accounts will be frozen until probate is granted which can take several months. If It is above the 325k limit (although doesn't sound like there is) you will have to pay iht on it as well. You will be unable to touch that money yourself and yes transferring it to avoid probate is illegal and you can be arrested for it as it is theft and fraud.

Futhermore if you have kids what happens to your kids if you both die? You both should have it set up of who is in charge of your kids and their finances should something happen to both of you. It's just reckless otherwise

If he’s in a dangerous career (if he is employed by someone else) does he have death in service benefits? Very important and useful. If he does then are you named as the beneficiary?

Apart from that, yes you do need wills. Very simple ones, even DIY would be fine, but otherwise the situation would be that everything goes to his underage DC and that gets messy to administer. Tbh I think that in your position a joint savings account would also be useful.

NB that any wills need to be written “in contemplation of marriage” including an explicit statement that you are intending to marry each other and you wish the wills to remain valid after you marry. Otherwise they become invalid when you do marry, and you have to go to the trouble and expense of getting new ones.

Even if you were married, having wills, and I would add Powers of Attorney into the mix, is very important, especially if you have dependent children and/or you are not financially independent.

I had a close friend who died unexpectedly and without a will. Despite being married it was still a stressful nightmare for his wife at a time when the last thing she needed was more stress and financial uncertainty. Even though married, not all of his estate passed to her. A large chunk of it went to the children which put her in a very difficult financial position as he had been the sole earner. We had to jump through a number of administrative and legal hoops to get everything sorted out and the end result, as mandated by intestacy law, was not what either she or he would have chosen.

Me and dp have chosen not to marry, but we have mirror wills leaving everything to each other. This is cheap and easy to arrange. It also means that you can detail intended guardianship of your dc should you both die.

You are not married, you have children, you must make wills

If he dies intestate then you simply can’t access his account and pull out the money. It is likely his children would inherit but it will take time to sort with no will, and you wont be able to use his money, that’s the children’s

Sort your wills out now

Definitely make wills. We're early 30s unmarried with a child and have mirror wills and powers of attorney sorted. We have also got life insurance for each other and ensured our state pensions will go to each other. Being unmarried allowed me to get a first time buyer deal on our house as the mortgage is in my name so we aren't in any rush to get married.

If he dies and you aren't married you will lose out on the government bereavement support payment which would give you a lump sum of £3,500 plus a monthly amount for 18 months. You won't be entitled to automatically benefit from any part of his estate including money in his bank accounts. All would go to his next of kin. Sometimes with pensions you are given the chance to prove that you were financially interdependent, and then they will grant you a survivors pension. It would be an administrative nightmare at a time when.you will be grief stricken. Get married AND write wills asap.

Out of curiosity is money in a joint account automatically the surviving parties money?? Not killing my fiancé 😂😂😂 This thread just made me think of a few things.

My fiancé has two children and an ex wife. She might be entitled to any money he saves? It may be the kids money if he dies. Is there a threshold he can save before his child maintenance increases? We don’t even have a joint account or saving yet but this has got me thinking.

Can start a new thread if I need too.