A general question about wills and a couple dying

[inscotland]

So friends of mine should have been on the AirFrance jet that crashed a few weeks back. The only reason they were not was because their internal flight was late - thank f**k.

Anyway, during loads of what if conversations the following came up -

If husband and wife die together and there are no children what happens to their estate, ie house and savings etc?

Would it go to their parents as closest living relatives? Or of parents not alive then siblings?

If no-one relatives can be found it would go to the state. When you make a will the whole family being wiped out scenario is one of the things you take into consideration.

I know of a couple who died in a car crash. When the hospital wrote down the time of death, they were 15mins apart so all the estate went to the spouse who 'lived' for that extra 15mins. I had never thought about this before. They had no children so only one half of the family inherited and it caused extra upset.

If a family group all die at the same time I believe that the legal convetion is to assume that the oldest person died first, and the youngest person died last (even if they actually all died at the same time) and so for inheritance to work on that basis.

It was a while ago that I heard that though, so it could be out of date.

If they have not left wills the estates will go to the parents, or if no parents then to siblings ... there is a list which has to be followed.
If people die in an accident where the order of their deaths isn't certain e.g. in your air accident example the law is that the deaths are presumed to have occurred in order of seniority, so that the younger person is presumed to have survived the elder person. The relevant legislation is s.184 Law of Property Act 1925.
NB this the law in England and Wales - not sure about people resident in Scotland!

yeah I remember that about our wills, my DH would be considered to die last as he is younger if we were to die in the same accident

doesnt matter that much as we have matching wills