intestate
Intestate means dying without a valid will, which hands the sharing of your money and property to the law rather than to your own wishes.
In plain English
Here is the surprising part. Writing a will does not require a lawyer, a court, or even much money, and yet most Nigerians who have worked hard for decades still die without one. It sounds backwards. The people with the most to protect are often the ones who leave the least instruction behind.
When that happens, you have died intestate, and it simply means the law decides who gets what, using a fixed formula rather than anything you actually wanted. In Nigeria, depending on your state and whether customary law, Islamic law, or the general law applies, that formula might split things in ways that surprise your family and leave out people you meant to care for, like a partner you never formally married or a child from outside your marriage.
Think about a Lagos businessman who built a thriving shop and a small block of flats, but never wrote anything down. When he dies suddenly, his wife assumes everything is hers. Instead, the law brings in his children, his parents, and sometimes extended family, and what should have been a calm grieving season turns into months of court applications just to get letters of administration, which is the intestate version of what a will's executor would normally handle smoothly.
In the United Kingdom, the rules are called the rules of intestacy, and they are just as rigid. A long term partner who was never married to the deceased can legally receive nothing, no matter how many years they shared a home and a life together.
For Nigerians abroad sending money home to build a house or fund a family project, this matters even more, because assets sitting in two countries without a will can trigger two separate legal battles, one in Nigeria and one where you live, both slow, both costly, both avoidable.
A woman in Abuja dies suddenly owning a house worth ₦40,000,000 and no will. Her husband expects to inherit it fully, but under the applicable law her children and, in some cases, her husband's family, are also entitled to a share, and the property cannot be sold or transferred until a court appointed administrator settles the sharing formula, a process that can take over a year.
Questions people ask
What happens to my money if I die intestate in Nigeria?
The law of your state, or the customary or Islamic law that applies to you, decides how your money and property are shared among your spouse, children, and sometimes extended family, regardless of what you might have preferred.
Can a partner I never married inherit if I die without a will?
In most cases, no. Both Nigerian and United Kingdom intestacy rules generally favour legally recognised spouses and blood relatives, so an unmarried partner can be left with nothing unless assets were jointly owned or specifically arranged beforehand.
How is an intestate estate different from one with a will?
With a will, an executor you chose carries out your exact instructions fairly quickly. Without one, a court has to appoint an administrator and apply a fixed legal formula, which usually takes longer and rarely matches what the person would have actually wanted.
Last reviewed