You're right,lebaleb,as my late husband and myself found that out in 1986 when his sister suddenly died.
As per the law/rules,he'd always thought that he was next of kin to his sister after the loss of the eldest brother,but it didn't/doesn't work out that way.
It was the children of the eldest ( deceased ) brother who benefitted,where no will was found ( and believe me the solicitor nearly broke his neck looking everywhere for a will ) This was a family who the sister was never very close to---------but the law was the law and the estate was divided between the children/adults and my late husband and I.
The family solicitor left the room so that husband and I could have a good swear.We had been attending the poor woman during her short illness,nobody else went near just because she was " eccentric ".
The private doctor who we'd sent for had diagnosed muscle pain in her back and left painkillers. I rang for an ambulance,urgently at 4pm in the afternoon when she was vomiting,and at 8.20,the ambulance arrived----------the call having been forgotten !! A 999 one at that. Then at 3am the following morning,the 59 year old was dead.If anyone could have sued for incompetency,it was us,but we were too upset to deal with anything other than the shock of the death of a beautiful woman.