Dying without a will in Victoria.

Dying without a valid will is called dying intestate. When it happens, a statutory formula in Part 1A of the Administration and Probate Act 1958 decides who inherits your estate, in a fixed order set by Parliament rather than by you.

People assume it all goes to their partner, or splits evenly, and are surprised to learn it often does neither. The formula does not know your family, your promises or your intentions. It simply applies.

The formula is at its most brutal with the families it fits least. A blended family, a partner you have not married, a child from an earlier relationship, an estranged relative you never meant to benefit: these are exactly the situations where the statutory shares pull sharply away from what the person would have chosen.

Intestacy also decides nothing about who raises your children, or who administers your estate. Those are left to a court process your family has to start, at the worst possible time, with none of the direction a will would have given.

We are not going to set out the exact shares here, because the point is that they are unlikely to be right for you, and the formula is unforgiving once it applies. What matters is that all of it can be avoided.

A will replaces the whole formula with your actual wishes, names the people who should benefit and who should administer the estate, and appoints guardians for children under 18. For most people it is a short, fixed-fee document signed within a couple of weeks.

If someone close to you has already died without a will, we also act for families through the letters of administration process, so the estate can be dealt with properly.