Picture the fact pattern that turns up again and again in the FLK2 paper. A man dies. There is a piece of paper that looks like a will, but only one person watched him sign it. He was married, had two children, and left behind a house worth £400,000 and some savings. The question asks you who takes what. You have ninety seconds. Where do you even start?
This is the heart of Wills and the Administration of Estates, one of the six subjects tested in SQE1 FLK2. It rewards candidates who work through the estate in a fixed order rather than guessing. Let me walk you through that order, because once you internalise it, the single best answer usually falls out on its own.
Is the will valid? Formalities and capacity first
Never distribute an estate until you have decided whether a valid will exists. The formal requirements come from section 9 of the Wills Act 1837. The will must be in writing and signed by the testator (or by someone in their presence at their direction), and it must appear that the testator intended by that signature to give effect to the will. Crucially, the signature must be made or acknowledged in the presence of two or more witnesses present at the same time, and each witness must then sign or acknowledge in the testator's presence.
Go back to our opening scenario. Only one person watched the signature. That will fails section 9 and is invalid, which means the estate passes on intestacy. Examiners love this trap because it is easy to skip straight to distribution and forget to check the foundations.
Validity also depends on testamentary capacity. The classic test comes from Banks v Goodfellow (1870): the testator must understand the nature of the act and its effects, the extent of their property, and the claims to which they ought to give effect, with no disorder of the mind poisoning their affections. Watch also for want of knowledge and approval, undue influence, and the special rules where a beneficiary or their spouse acts as a witness — under section 15 of the Wills Act 1837 that gift fails, although the will itself stays valid.
Exam habit worth building: before you read the answer options, ask yourself three quick questions — valid execution, capacity, and revocation. Marriage revokes a will under section 18 (unless made in contemplation of that marriage), and divorce treats an ex-spouse as having predeceased under section 18A.
No valid will? The intestacy rules for SQE1 FLK2
Where there is no valid will, the Administration of Estates Act 1925, as amended by the Inheritance and Trustees' Powers Act 2014, decides who inherits. This is one of the most heavily tested areas in the whole subject, so you must know the branching structure cold.
If the deceased leaves a surviving spouse or civil partner and issue (children, grandchildren and so on), the spouse takes all the personal chattels, a fixed statutory legacy (currently £322,000, though the figure is reviewed — always apply the amount stated in the question), and half of the remainder absolutely. The other half of the remainder goes to the issue on the statutory trusts. Note the survivorship rule: the spouse must survive the deceased by 28 days.
Where there is a spouse but no issue, the spouse takes the whole estate outright. That has been the position since 2014, so any answer that carves out a share for parents or siblings when a spouse survives is wrong.
With no surviving spouse, you move down a strict order: issue on the statutory trusts; then parents; then brothers and sisters of the whole blood; then half blood; grandparents; uncles and aunts; and eventually the Crown as bona vacantia. The "statutory trusts" phrase matters — it means the interest is contingent on reaching 18 or marrying earlier, and it triggers the per stirpes principle, so a predeceased child's share passes to that child's own children.
Return to our worked example. The invalid will means intestacy. Spouse plus two children, estate around £400,000. The spouse takes the chattels, £322,000, and half of the £78,000 balance (£39,000). The children share the other £39,000 on the statutory trusts. Practise that arithmetic until it is automatic.
Choosing the right grant of representation
Before anyone can deal with the assets, they usually need authority. The type of grant depends on whether there is a valid will and whether executors are willing and able to act.
- Grant of probate — issued to executors named in a valid will. Their authority actually derives from the will itself; the grant simply confirms it.
- Letters of administration with will annexed — where there is a valid will but no executor able or willing to act (for example, the named executor has died or renounced).
- Letters of administration — where there is no valid will, so the estate passes on intestacy.
The order of priority for who may apply is set by the Non-Contentious Probate Rules 1987: rule 20 for grants where there is a will, and rule 22 for intestacy (which broadly follows the order of entitlement to the estate). A common MCQ tests whether a person low in the order can apply while someone with a better right is still willing — they cannot, unless that better-entitled person clears off by renouncing or being passed over.
The administration process: what personal representatives actually do
Once appointed, personal representatives (PRs) — executors under a will, administrators on intestacy — follow a recognisable sequence. Learn it as a story, not a list of duties, and the questions become far easier to read.
They collect in and value the assets, then deal with inheritance tax. IHT is generally due before the grant issues, which is why PRs sometimes need to arrange finance to pay it. Remember the key reliefs candidates confuse: the nil rate band, the transferable nil rate band between spouses, the residence nil rate band for a home passing to direct descendants, and the spouse and charity exemptions. You will not usually be asked to compute a full liability, but you must recognise which transfers are exempt and how lifetime gifts within seven years feed back in.
After the grant, PRs pay the deceased's debts and expenses. The order of payment for a solvent estate follows Part II of the First Schedule to the Administration of Estates Act 1925, and PRs who want protection against unknown creditors should place statutory advertisements under section 27 of the Trustee Act 1925. That single step comes up regularly, because it lets a PR distribute without personal liability to a creditor who surfaces later.
Only then do they distribute to beneficiaries and prepare estate accounts. PRs are not expected to complete everything overnight; the courts recognise the executor's year, meaning beneficiaries generally cannot force distribution within twelve months of death. Throughout, PRs owe fiduciary duties and must act with reasonable care and skill under the Trustee Act 2000.
Distribution traps examiners love: lapse, ademption and abatement
Even with a valid will, gifts can fail. This is fertile ground for single best answer questions, so keep the three main failures crisp in your mind.
Lapse happens when a beneficiary dies before the testator. The gift usually fails and falls into residue. But watch section 33 of the Wills Act 1837: where a gift is to the testator's child or remoter descendant who predeceases leaving issue of their own, that issue take the gift instead, unless the will shows a contrary intention.
Ademption applies to specific gifts. If the testator leaves "my shares in X plc" but sells them before death, the gift adeems — it simply disappears, and the beneficiary gets nothing to replace it. Compare this with a general or pecuniary legacy, which does not adeem.
Abatement bites when the estate cannot meet all the gifts and debts. Gifts are reduced in a set order, with residue used first, then general legacies, then specific gifts. If a question tells you the estate is short, look immediately for abatement.
A quick self-test: a will gives "my BMW" to Anna, "£5,000" to Ben, and residue to Chloe. The testator sold the BMW before death and the estate cannot pay Ben in full. Which doctrines apply? Ademption removes Anna's gift; abatement reduces Ben's legacy. If you named both without hesitating, you are exam-ready on this point.
One final area to revise: claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975. Certain categories — spouses, former spouses, children, cohabitants of two years, and dependants — can apply for reasonable financial provision if the will or intestacy leaves them out. Know who can claim and the six-month time limit from the grant, and you have covered what the SQE tends to ask.
How CELE SQE can help you master this subject
Wills and the Administration of Estates rewards structured practice more than reading, which is exactly what our materials are built for. The CELE SQE textbooks cover all thirteen subjects (full set £950, or £570 for a single FLK set), and our question bank at £575 per month drills the intestacy calculations and grant-selection traps until they feel routine. If you prefer a guided path, the SQE1 courses run from £1,750 for the short-term option up to £3,720 for the long-term course, with a single-FLK route at half those prices if you only need FLK2. Reach us any time on WeChat SQE100 or at [email protected] — no pressure, just help when you want it.