The richest commoner in England died on 19th June, 1798, leaving an estate of £2 million, worth anywhere between half a billion dollars and one billion dollars today depending on how you measure it.

He died without a Will and the courts decided on an heir, a descendent of his aunt, who was not a close relative. This heir died soon after, however, and then the problems started. The administrator of the Will made some legally questionable decisions regarding who should benefit from the estate and, lo and behold, lawyers appeared. Legal actions, many and varied, followed.

One of William’s relatives had been an officer in the British army in North America during the Indian Wars of the late 18th century and he married and had a family there. However, the legal links to William were a bit opaque so lawyers began prospecting for anyone with a Jennens or Jennings connection and legal action to gain a share of the estate commenced from a cohort of Americans about 50 years after the saga began.

Throughout this time the assets and monies of the estate were held in trust, overseen by the courts, for the benefit of the legal heirs. The only payments approved were for LEGAL EXPENSES and that allowed action to continue for a long time. The claimants had to fund their side of the action but the lawyers defending were under no obligation to preserve the estate. In reality they were defending no-one – they were there simply to “represent” the estate against all claimants to ensure no undeserving party was paid anything.

AND they succeeded. No heirs were ever found by the courts and all legal action ceased around 1915 WHEN ALL THE MONEY RAN OUT.

Yes, the lawyers had received the equivalent of hundreds of millions of dollars between 1798 and 1915 and all because William Jennens, who must have been very aware of the implications, died without a valid Will.

If you’re a millennial you’ll know who Avicii is. Even if you’re not you may have heard that this 28-year-old Swede called Thomas Bergling took his own life in 2018, dying without a Will.

Avicii was one of the most successful of the online generation of musicians, DJ’s and producers of electronic music. Success brought wealth and fame, but also problems of mental health and addiction that can follow. He was an extraordinarily generous young man and he gave millions to a wide range of charities.

When he died he was living in the US, with assets both in that country and in Sweden. The law in Sweden meant that there would be no dispute about his estate – ALL of his assets went to his parents. Although he had living siblings they were entitled to nothing under intestacy rules.

So what’s the problem? Given his charitable giving it’s very likely he would have left money to various good causes. It’s also quite possible he would have left money or personal items to his two brothers and one sister. And with a small bit of smart estate planning his estate might have saved a lot of money paid in death taxes (US) and lawyers’ fees.

Another Swede who died intestate was Stieg Larsson, the author of the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo books, which have sold over 100 million copies.

Larsson died of a heart attack in 2004, leaving his unmarried partner of 32 years, Eva Gabrielsson. However, as he had no Will Swedish law settled his estate on his father and brother, with nothing to Eva. Swedish law did not recognize unmarried partners for the purposes of inheritance.

The massive fortune associated with the success of the novels went totally to these relatives and kicked off a major feud with Eva, who wanted to oversee Stieg’s literary legacy. She was unsuccessful and the family subsequently hired a ghost writer to continue the franchise and take advantage of a very unfortunate intestacy situation.

The moral of this story is particularly clear and cruel. Can anyone imagine that Stieg Larsson would not have wished his legacy and estate to go to his partner? A simple one-page Will would have achieved that.

Heath Ledger died in 2009, and although he had a Will, it was well out of date and as a result his daughter received nothing. He was not married to his ex-partner Michelle Williams and at the time of his death they were not a de facto couple. As a result his complete estate went to his family. Fortunately, provision was subsequently made for his daughter Matilda Rose but there’s no doubt that her father would have wanted to look after her comprehensively if he had had the opportunity to do so.

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