No will, no problem?

Do you ever think about what happens to your house, car, bank accounts, shares and super if you were to pass away without a will?

Lawyers will always encourage clients to prepare a will, but sometimes we may lose a loved one before all of our documents are in order.

So, what happens then?

If an individual passes away without a will, there is a cascading process to determine who is most entitled to benefit from the deceased’s estate.

Below is a chart with a basic overview of the process to determine who is most entitled to receive a deceased person’s estate.

It becomes particularly complicated and stressful for the loved ones of an individual who has passed away when there is a blended family. On the righthand side of the flowchart, you can see that when a deceased has a partner and children of a previous relationship, the estate is divided between them.

In Re Stagliano [2025] VSC 39, the deceased died without a will, leaving a partner and children of the relationship and children from a previous relationship. The administrator of the estate was put to the trouble of making an application to the Court to determine whether the deceased’s luxury cars were classified as personal chattels. If they were personal chattels, they would be gifted to the partner. If they did not fall within the definition, they would form part of the residuary estate and be divided appropriately between the spouse and children of the previous relationship. The Court determined that the luxury cars did fall within the definition of personal chattels and therefore were gifted to the spouse.

If you or someone you know does not currently have a will in place or would like to revisit the wishes outlined in their will, please get in contact with Scanlan Carroll.