Lack of wills sends Treasury and Queen's coffers soaring

Research from law firm Pannone has found that assets from deceased people with no named beneficiaries - known as intestacies - in England and Wales totalled £38.5m in 2011/12, a rise of 91% on the year before. Pannone believes that the majority of these ownerless assets - known as 'bona vacantia' - were smaller estates, rather than being made up of higher value intestacies. Pannone's Liz Braude said: "There is no clear explanation, thought, as to why the amount of bona vacantia has risen by so much in such a relatively short space of time. "One must presume that some cases of this ...