What Happens If No Executors Are Appointed

Components Of A Will – What Happens If No Executors Are Appointed?

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Want to make a start on your will?

Making a Will is not about wealth it is about making sure that what you want to happen to your estate does happen. It gives you the opportunity to specify such things as who will administer your estate, who will care for your children and who will receive specific items of your property.

If you fail to appoint executors this does not affect the validity of your will but does mean that a Grant of Probate will not be issued.

Instead, one of the beneficiaries will need to make application for a Grant of Letters of Administration with the Will Annexed. There is a set order of entitlement to such a grant.The person who is entitled to the residue of the estate (i.e. the person who has been left the remains of the estate after the payment of all charges, debts and bequests) has the prior entitlement.The practical effect is that you may end up with your estate being administered by someone who would not have been your first choice.

The same applies if you appoint an executor who dies before you or is unable to take up his duties.

The administration of your estate is dealt with in exactly the same way, regardless of which type of grant is issued, but there is a practical difference between executors and administrators. This is that an executor takes his authority from the will and can act before the Grant of Probate issues. In contrast, an administrator takes his authority from the Grant of Letters of Administration and cannot act before he receives it.

This difference enables an executor to collect in smaller assets by producing a copy of the will before he receives the grant, subject, of course, to the rules of the asset-holder concerned.

What the will is intended to cover

As a general rule, a will executed in England and Wales covers all your immoveable property (houses, for instance) within the jurisdiction and moveable property anywhere in the world (bank accounts, for example).It is possible to make more than one will specifying the limitations of each, e.g. ‘This will is intended to relate only to my affairs in England and Wales.’ If you have a property in Spain you will almost certainly need another will to cover it. You also need to be aware that the requirements for release of the funds differ from one country to another.

In some countries the concept of executors is unknown. (see For your family’s sake, make a will https://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/payasyougopensions)

If you have assets in two different countries and attempt to make two, wills there is the danger of accidentally revoking an English will by a foreign will and vice versa. Such matters are outside the intended scope of this website.If you have assets in another country seek specialist advice, do not attempt to make your own will.

A common mistake made by writers of home-made wills is that they believe they have to state all their assets in the will. For example:

`I give my bank account with H bank no. 1234, my building society account with D building society no. 3456, my shares in British Gas, my bicycle, my furniture, my car and the cash in my piggy bank to my wife.’

The problems likely to arise are that you may have closed the accounts during your lifetime and you may have changed your mode of transport.

Let us say you have a bank account no. 1234 at the time you write this in your will. During your lifetime you discover that a better rate of interest is available if you switch to another account.

Being a sensible investor you switch accounts. When you die, the law will not say, ‘Oh he changed account no. 1234 to account no. 4567.’It will say, ‘Account no. 1234 was closed and thus his wife does not receive the money it once contained.’ A partial intestacy may follow unless you have gone on to say that you leave all your other assets to your children, for instance.

It is important to avoid a partial intestacy arising if you want to know exactly where your money will end up. If the gifts in the will do not use up all your assets then anything left over will pass according to the intestacy rules.This situation is what is meant by a partial intestacy and is usually brought about by a testator acquiring assets after the date of the will but not having inserted a general gift of residue (i.

e. not specifying who is to inherit the remainder of his estate).

If you wish to give everything to one person simply say so.

Examples of simple wills are given at the back of this website but, briefly, you can say, ‘After payment of all liabilities I give everything I own to my wife.’

Other webpages of interest – Components Of A Will – Types Of Gifts or Components Of A Will – Monetary Legacies
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