What happens when a person passes on without a Will?
Where a person dies intestate (i.e. without a Will), assets and personal belongings shall be distributed according to the law i.e. Distribution Act 1958 (see table below). Without a Will, a Letter of Administration is required. The court would require an appointment of an administrator (being the individual responsible for managing and distributing the estate). The individual to whom the grant of administration is made can be required by the court to provide a bond/security equivalent to the value of the whole estate that he would be administering unless the court in any particular case orders otherwise. In the meantime, all assets such as bank accounts and investment will be frozen. Family dependents may suffer financial distress during the interim period of obtaining the Letter of Administration as there may be no immediate cashflow until the Letter of Administration is granted and extracted.
