Second marriages and blended families: why a normal will often gets it wrong (UK)
18 August 2026 · Inherit Vault
Two rules catch out almost every blended family in the country. Getting married cancels the will you already had. And leaving everything to your new spouse can quietly cut your own children out entirely.
Marriage tears up your old will
Section 18 of the Wills Act 1837 revokes a will on marriage, unless it was written specifically in contemplation of that marriage. So the careful will you made after your divorce, splitting things between your children, stops existing the moment you remarry. If you die before writing a new one you're intestate, and the intestacy rules take over. The Law Commission has recommended scrapping this rule, but recommending isn't the same as changing, and it's still the law.
Sideways disinheritance, in one paragraph
You leave everything to your new husband or wife, trusting they'll pass it on to your children eventually. Then they inherit it outright, which means it's theirs to do as they like with. They remarry, or they make a new will leaving it to their own children, or they simply spend it. Your children get nothing. They've no claim either: stepchildren aren't relatives under the intestacy rules, and your spouse was free to change their mind. Nobody has done anything wrong. That's what makes it so common.
Intestacy is not the safety net people think
Die without a will in England and Wales, leaving a spouse and children? Your spouse takes your personal belongings, the first £322,000, and half of what's left. Your children split the other half. Nothing at all goes to a partner you never married, however long you lived together, and nothing goes to stepchildren you brought up.
Three fixes that actually work
A life interest trust lets your surviving spouse live in the house and take the income for life, with the capital going to your children afterwards. It's the standard answer for second marriages. Check how you own the property too: joint tenants pass to the survivor automatically no matter what your will says, so severing to tenants in common is often the first job. And know about the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975. It lets a spouse, a child, or a partner you lived with for at least two years bring a claim. The window is generally six months from the grant of probate.
Blended families rarely go wrong through bad intentions. They go wrong because the paperwork was written for the previous version of the family and nobody revisited it. Getting it down clearly, and telling people where it is, is most of the job.
Sorting this out for someone else? Make sure your family never has to.
Most of the time goes on finding out what the person had and who to call. Inherit Vault keeps that list for you: your accounts, pensions and policies, and where your will is kept. Only you can read it. Your executor gets it when it is needed.
Read more
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