Title: What happens to a deceased person's money and possessions?
Headings: What happens to a deceased person's money and possessions?
What happens to a deceased person's money and possessions?
Introduction
Money in the bank, insurance policies and savings
Bank accounts in joint names
Credit union accounts
Occupational and personal pensions
The legal right share
Where a legal right share does not apply
Divorce, separation and desertion
Cohabiting partners
Rights of children under a will
The family or shared home
What happens when there is no will?

Content: Your executor must inform your spouse or civil partner in writing of their right to choose between these two options and your spouse or civil partner must ask for their legal right share within 6 months of being notified, or within 12 months of the taking out of the Grant of Representation. Where a legal right share does not apply
Your spouse or civil partner can renounce (give up) their rights to the legal right share. This can be part of an agreement before marriage or civil partnership or the spouse or civil partner can give up their rights to benefit their children or other named beneficiaries. If there is evidence of undue influence or evidence that the spouse or civil partner did not understand what they were doing, the renunciation may be challenged. It is normally advised that a spouse or civil partner get independent legal advice if renouncing their legal right share. The legal right share can be lost where the spouse or civil partner is: Convicted of the murder, manslaughter or attempted murder of the deceased  person
Convicted of an offence against the deceased person or a child that  carries a sentence of more than 2 years
Divorce, separation and desertion
Separation agreements usually include a renunciation of both spouses’ or civil partner’s legal right share. If you are divorced or your civil partnership was dissolved, you do not have to provide a legal right share. If your spouse or civil partner deserted you for more than 2 years, they are not entitled to a legal right share unless they deserted you as a result of your behaviour (for example, domestic abuse). Cohabiting partners
Partners, who live with each other but are not married or in a civil partnership, have no automatic legal right to each other's estates, although under the redress scheme for cohabiting couples introduced by the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010 a qualified cohabitant can apply for a share of the estate of a deceased cohabitant.