The children, spouses and cohabitants of people who die intestate could benefit from proposed changes to inheritance laws, published yesterday.

New proposals published by the Law Commission include giving more rights to the surviving partner and children of unmarried couples and removing complex and costly ‘life interest’ trust arrangements imposed on some spouses in favour of a simpler form of sharing estates.

Current intestacy rules date back to 1925, although more recent legislation allows family members to challenge the strict application of the rules.

Professor Elizabeth Cooke, law commissioner leading the inheritance rules project and a former practising solicitor, said that the proposals followed extensive research and consultation on how the law of inheritance should operate in the 21st century. ‘They will benefit many thousands of people at one of the most difficult times of their lives,’ she said. ‘At the same time, they preserve one of our most important freedoms, namely the right to choose to whom we leave property by will.’

Jeremy Groeger-Wilson, head of wills and estates at Kent firm Clarkson Wright & Jakes, welcomed the proposals as ‘a big step in the right direction, and about time, too’. He said: ‘It is time the intestacy rules around cohabitants were brought in line with the rest of society.’