Can someone advise me on this intestacy situation Scotland

[Oobiedoobiedo]

Person A dies.

Survived by spouse B, and 2 (adult) children C and D.

A leaves no property (rented accommodation), contents of house (less than £29000), car (valued at £15000).

A leaves £1000 in bank.

Death benefit lump sum (from pension) of £68,000.

Insurance payout of £50,000.

How would intestacy rules have this legally be shared out between spouse and children?

https://www.wallacequinn.co.uk/disinheriting-your-children-in-scotland/#:~:text=After%20the%20Prior%20Rights%20have,estate%20divided%20equally%20amongst%20them

Where there is no Will

This does become quite complicated. The reason for this is that when someone dies intestate – that means without a Will – that person’s spouse or civil partner is entitled to something called Prior Rights. As the name suggests, Prior Rights take precedence over Legal Rights. Prior Rights mean the surviving spouse or civil partner receives:

• the family home up to a certain value (currently £473,000)
• the furniture in that home up to a certain value (currently £29,000), and
• a cash sum of money, again, up to a certain value (currently £50,000 if there are children, £89,000 of there are no children).

If the value of the estate is within the current limits for Prior Rights, then the entire estate will be exhausted by these and there will be nothing left for Legal Rights. After the Prior Rights have been satisfied, if there is any moveable estate left, the following Legal Rights will apply:

• The spouse or civil partner is entitled to receive one third of the remaining estate,
• Any child is or children are entitled to receive one third of the remaining estate divided equally amongst them

That still leaves the remainder of the estate to be paid over to someone and, in this example, where there is a surviving spouse or civil partner, the child or children are entitled to receive the remainder of the estate – and it doesn’t matter if it’s made up of heritable or moveable property!

https://www.harpermacleod.co.uk/insights/what-happens-in-scotland-if-you-die-without-a-will/

Sorry @beetr00 i don’t have the best signal and I didn’t see your response till I did mine.

So, if I understand correctly, the spouse would recieve the 1st £50,000 of the moveable estate (there is no heritable estate), the estate thereof would be divided a third to the spouse, and a third to be divided between the 2 children. The remaining 3rd would go to the children too.

That would be my take on it @Oobiedoobiedo

Spouse gets the house contents + car + bank money + one third of remainder

two thirds of remainder to the children divided equally.

Death benefit and life insurance are probably not part of the estate though. Hence they'd pass to whoever was nominated by the deceased regardless of intestacy rule (probably spouse) - although the trustees of the death benefit might have room for discretion in exceptional circumstances.

You definitely need to check the specific terms and conditions of insurance and death benefit. In England I wouldn't expect them to fall under intestacy calculations - you'd need to look up the Scottish rules.

I didn't believe that the death benefit did, but I have been informed otherwise. The insurance does I believe. It's a total minefield.

In this case, the spouse inherits, at least, the house contents, car and £1,000.

The death in service may be paid by the scheme trustees to whoever has been nominated to receive the benefit. But a scheme member might not have made a nomination - in which case it might be paid to the ‘personal representative’. And in such a case, this can sometimes result in the spouse requiring to apply to the court for appointment as executor dative when otherwise this might not be required.

The insurance policy will be paid to whoever the policy is to pay out to. If that person is the deceased, then it will be payable to the ‘personal representative’ as part of the deceased’s estate.