If there is no will

The estate is divided by a statute, not by what anyone believes the person wanted. Most families assume the surviving spouse simply inherits everything. In every state Sahvelo has read for this that is only sometimes true — and the case where it is least true is a second marriage, which is the case people are most confident about.

Mostly the same everywhere

Sources: 8 primary sources
States verified: 46

Short answer

A statute divides the estate, and it does not bend to what anyone believes the person wanted. Most families assume the surviving spouse simply inherits everything; in every state Sahvelo has read for this that is only sometimes true, and it is least true in a second marriage.

It also only reaches what a will would have reached — a beneficiary account, a joint home and a funded trust all pass outside it. And nobody was named to be in charge, so a court appoints an administrator, usually on a bond.^{Source 5}

Verified where marked: 29 U.S.C. §1104(a)(1)(D) (Fiduciary duties — plan documents rule) (opens in a new tab) checked 2026-08-12

Jump to what you need

Does the surviving spouse get everything
We were together for years but never married
There are children from an earlier marriage
Who is going to run the estate
Can the family agree something different
What happens to the house
The children are minors

What the statute actually does

Dying without a valid will is called dying intestate. The state's intestacy statute then supplies a distribution: a fixed order that runs spouse and children first, then parents, then siblings and their descendants, then outward through grandparents.

It is not a guess about intentions and it does not bend to them. Evidence that the person had promised the house to one child, or had not spoken to another in twenty years, changes nothing. The order is the order.

Intestacy only governs what would have passed under a will in the first place. A retirement account with a named beneficiary, a life insurance policy, a payable-on-death account, a jointly held home and anything inside a funded trust all pass on their own instructions — often the majority of an estate by value.^{Source 5}

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Sahvelo gives information drawn from statutes, agency guidance and official forms. It is not legal advice for your particular situation. Terms & disclaimer.

Who is left out entirely

The omissions are more consequential than the shares, because they are the cases where the statutory answer is furthest from what the person would have chosen.

An unmarried partner inherits nothing under intestacy, however long the relationship and whatever the household believed. Of everything on this list, this is the one a will would have prevented outright.
Stepchildren who were never adopted are generally not descendants for this purpose, however they were raised.
Friends, caregivers and charities receive nothing.
In-laws receive nothing, including a widowed son-in-law who has spent a decade caring for the person.
A separated but not divorced spouse usually still inherits, which surprises families in the opposite direction.

If an unmarried partner is living in the house, this is urgent rather than theoretical. The house may now belong to people who have no obligation to let them stay, and the position depends on how the title was held. Get advice quickly rather than waiting for the estate to be administered.

Who runs the estate

The second consequence of having no will is that nobody was named to be in charge. A court appoints an administrator instead, working down a statutory priority order that usually starts with the surviving spouse and then the adult children.

Whoever is appointed may have to post a bond, which a will normally waives. That is a real cost paid out of the estate.
The appointment can be contested, and in a family that already disagrees it usually is.
Where nobody suitable will serve, a public administrator or a professional may be appointed and paid from the estate.
The powers an administrator has are often narrower than those a will would have granted, which can mean a court application to sell a house.

This is why "there was nothing much to leave" is not a reason not to have a will. The will does at least as much work naming the person in charge as it does naming who receives what.

What the family can and cannot change

The shares themselves are fixed. What the people entitled to them do next is not.

An heir may disclaim — refuse their share — and it then passes as if they had died first. Disclaimers are formal, time-limited and irrevocable, and are usually done for tax reasons or to move a share down a generation.
Heirs who all agree can generally settle differently between themselves, but that is a transfer between them with its own tax and creditor consequences, not a rewriting of the statute.
A surviving spouse's statutory entitlements — homestead rights, family allowances, exempt property — exist alongside intestacy in several states and can change the practical outcome substantially.
Nothing here can be settled by a family agreement that the will "would have" said something. There is no will.

Do not distribute anything on a handshake before authority is granted and debts are dealt with. An administrator who pays the wrong person is personally exposed, and "we all agreed" is not a defense to a creditor.

What the surviving spouse receives, by state

This is where the states genuinely part company, and they part in the situation families are most confident about. Three questions do most of the work: whether every surviving child is the couple's, whether the surviving SPOUSE has a child from elsewhere, and whether a surviving parent of the person who died takes anything ahead of the spouse. States answer each of those differently, and several do not ask all three at all.

Spouse, and all the children are the couple's

The case people assume is simple

The answer in 46 states

Alabama

The first $100,000 is for the childless case; where every surviving child is the couple's, the slice is fifty thousand dollars plus half the balance, and the children take the rest. Alabama does not ask whether the surviving spouse has children from elsewhere.^{Source: Ala. Code §43-8-41 — share of the spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Alaska

Not automatically all of it, and Alaska is one of the states read here that asks about the SPOUSE's other children rather than only the decedent's. Where every surviving descendant of the deceased is also the spouse's and the spouse has no other descendants, the spouse takes the whole estate. Where every one of them is the couple's but the spouse has at least one child from another relationship, the spouse takes one hundred and fifty thousand dollars plus half the balance and the descendants take the other half. The second case surprises people, because nothing about the deceased's family changed.^{Source: Alaska Court System — Death without a will (intestacy) (opens in a new tab)•}
Arizona

The spouse takes the entire intestate estate — both separate property and the decedent's half of the community property.^{Source 1}
California

The spouse takes all the community property, but only half the separate property with one child, and a third of it with more than one. Children take the rest.^{Source 2}
Colorado

The entire intestate estate, but only where the surviving spouse has no child of their own from elsewhere. Colorado asks the blended-family question in BOTH directions, and this is the half that most of the states Sahvelo has read do not ask: where every one of the deceased's children is also the spouse's, but the spouse has a surviving child who is not the deceased's, the spouse takes the first $332,000 plus half of the balance and the couple's own children take the rest. The children whose existence reduces the share inherit nothing under this section. Every Colorado figure is indexed, and the year of DEATH fixes which amount applies.^{Source: C.R.S. §15-11-102 — share of spouse (opens in a new tab)•Source: Colorado Department of Revenue — cost of living adjustment for property of estates in probate, prepared 21 January 2026 (opens in a new tab)•Source: C.R.S. §15-10-112 — cost of living adjustment of certain dollar amounts (opens in a new tab)•}
Connecticut

The first $100,000 plus half the balance, absolutely, with the children taking the rest. Connecticut does not ask whether the surviving spouse has children from elsewhere, so the figure does not move for that.^{Source: Conn. Gen. Stat. §45a-437 — intestate succession, distribution to spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Delaware

Delaware divides by KIND of property rather than by amount. Several states separate one kind of property from another, but Delaware is the one that does it inside a Uniform Probate Code first-slice rule: Nevada and Louisiana separate community from separate property, Oklahoma separates what the couple built together from everything else, and Rhode Island treats land and possessions as two different questions entirely. The spouse takes the first $50,000 of the intestate PERSONAL estate plus half the balance of it, and in the real estate a life estate only. So a spouse whose late husband or wife owned the house and little else does not inherit the house: they may live in it for life, and it belongs to the children.^{Source: 12 Del. C. §502 — share of spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Florida

The spouse takes the entire estate — but only if the spouse has no children of their own from anyone else. If they do, the spouse takes half even though every one of the decedent's children is shared.^{Source 3}
Hawaii

Everything, but only if the surviving partner has no children of their own from elsewhere. Where they do, the share is the first $150,000 plus one-half of the balance. And read the heading of the section before anything else: Hawaii applies every one of these rules to a registered RECIPROCAL BENEFICIARY exactly as to a spouse. Wisconsin does the same for a registered domestic partner, so the idea is not unique to Hawaii; the wording, and who may register, are.^{Source: HRS §560:2-102 — share of spouse or reciprocal beneficiary (opens in a new tab)•Source: HRS §560:2-102(3) — where the surviving partner has descendants who are not the decedent's (opens in a new tab)•}
Idaho

Ask the question twice, because Idaho is a community property state. The decedent's one-half of the COMMUNITY property passes to the surviving spouse entire. Of the SEPARATE property the spouse takes one-half, and the children take the rest. A long marriage in which most property was acquired together therefore passes largely to the spouse whoever else survives.^{Source: Idaho Code §15-2-102 — share of the spouse, separate and community property (opens in a new tab)•}
Illinois

Half and half. The spouse takes half of the entire estate and the descendants take the other half per stirpes — one child or five, the fraction does not move. Before that split the spouse can take the spouse's award off the top, which is at least $20,000 plus a further sum for each minor or dependent child living with them, and creditors cannot reach it.^{Source: 755 ILCS 5/2-1 — rules of descent and distribution (opens in a new tab)•Source: 755 ILCS 5/15-1 — spouse's award (opens in a new tab)•}
Indiana

One-half of the net estate where the decedent is survived by at least one child or the issue of a deceased child. Indiana asks nothing about whose children they are in this subsection — but the whole subsection is expressly subject to a second-marriage rule, so read the second-marriage branch point below before relying on it.^{Source: IC 29-1-2-1(b) — the general intestate share of a surviving spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Iowa

Effectively all of it, and Iowa says so by listing property rather than by naming a fraction. The spouse takes the whole value of the real property, all the exempt personal property, and everything else not needed to pay debts. The first category reaches real property the deceased owned at ANY TIME during the marriage, not only what was owned at death.^{Source: Iowa Code §633.211 — share of surviving spouse where the issue are shared (opens in a new tab)•}
Kansas

Exactly one half, and the number of children makes no difference: one child or six, the spouse takes a half and the children divide the rest. Kansas is two sentences long and asks nothing else.^{Source: K.S.A. 59-504 — surviving spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Kentucky

Everything, unless the surviving spouse has a child from another relationship, in which case one half. Read the date first: Kentucky rewrote this statute effective 15 July 2026 and put the spouse at the head of the order of descent for the first time, so the date of death decides which version governs and the older one, still published, answers differently. On top of the share, the spouse also takes half the surplus personalty outright and a life estate in one third of any real property the deceased owned during the marriage, including land already sold.^{Source: KRS 391.010 — descent of real estate, effective 15 July 2026 (opens in a new tab)•Source: KRS 392.020 — surviving spouse's interest, dower and curtesy, surplus personalty (opens in a new tab)•}
Louisiana

No ownership at all, and this is the answer a Louisiana family most needs to hear early. The children own the deceased's half of the community property immediately. The surviving spouse has a usufruct over it, which is the civil-law right to use it and take its income, and which ENDS IF THEY REMARRY. The survivor already owns their own half of the community outright. So the house is the children's, the widow or widower may live in it, and marrying again ends that.^{Source: La. Civ. Code art. 890 — usufruct of surviving spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Maine

Everything, but only if the SPOUSE has no other children either. Where every surviving descendant is shared and the spouse has none of their own outside the marriage, the spouse takes the entire estate. Where the spouse does have a child of their own, the share drops to the first $100,000 plus one-half of the balance. Thirteen states in this comparison ask about the spouse's other children, and in Maine it is the difference between everything and a fraction. Massachusetts drops to the same figure. Two states open the gap wider still by keeping no slice at all in that case: Kentucky goes from everything to one half, and West Virginia from everything to three fifths.^{Source: Maine 18-C M.R.S. §2-102 — share of the spouse, where the spouse has other descendants (opens in a new tab)•Source: Maine 18-C M.R.S. §2-102 — share of the spouse, where a parent survives (opens in a new tab)•}
Maryland

It depends on the child's AGE, and Maryland is the only state here where it does. A surviving MINOR child halves the spouse's share, even where that child is the couple's own. Once there is no surviving minor child and every child is shared, the spouse takes the entire intestate estate. So a Maryland widow whose only child is her own eight-year-old takes half; the same widow after that child turns eighteen takes all of it. A registered domestic partner is treated exactly as a spouse throughout.^{Source: Md. Code, Est. & Trusts §3-102 — share of surviving spouse or registered domestic partner (opens in a new tab)•}
Massachusetts

The whole intestate estate, provided the surviving spouse has no children from anywhere else. Where the spouse does, the first slice is one hundred thousand dollars plus half the balance, and the couple's own children take the rest. Massachusetts asks the question about the survivor's history and charges the same price for it as for a stepchild on the other side.^{Source: MGL c.190B §2-102 — share of spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Michigan

A first slice plus half the balance — and the first slice is much larger than the statute suggests. The printed figure is one hundred and fifty thousand dollars; for a death in 2026 the adjusted amount certified by the department of treasury is $301,000, because Michigan indexes and the older of its two adjustment factors has more than doubled the figures it touches since 1997. The year of death governs. Michigan then asks the question about the survivor's own children that nine other states here also ask: if the surviving spouse has children who are not the deceased's, the case falls into a different subdivision. Michigan is unusual in that the arithmetic in that subdivision comes out the same, so the question is asked and the answer does not move.^{Source: MCL 700.2102 — intestate share of a surviving spouse (opens in a new tab)•Source: Michigan Department of Treasury — Estates and Protected Individuals Code cost-of-living adjustments, certified 30 January 2026 (opens in a new tab)•Source: MCL 700.1210 — cost-of-living adjustment of the dollar amounts in the Estates and Protected Individuals Code (opens in a new tab)•}
Minnesota

The whole intestate estate, unless the surviving spouse has a child from another relationship, in which case the first $225,000 plus half the balance. Minnesota has only two cases where its model act has four, and this is the one families do not see coming: nothing about the deceased's family has changed.^{Source: Minn. Stat. 524.2-102 — share of the spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Missouri

The first $20,000 in value plus one-half of the balance, and the children take the rest. It is the smallest fixed slice in this comparison and the section's own history line dates it to 1996, so it has not moved while the states that index theirs have.^{Source: RSMo 474.010 — general rules of descent (opens in a new tab)•}
Montana

The whole intestate estate, provided the surviving spouse also has no children from anywhere else. Where the spouse does, the first slice is two hundred twenty-five thousand dollars plus half the balance, and the deceased's descendants take the rest even though they are the spouse's children too. Montana asks all three of the questions this comparison has found to matter.^{Source: MCA 72-2-112 — share of spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Nebraska

The first $150,000 plus one-half of the balance, and the children take the rest. The section was amended with an operative date of 18 July 2026, so older guidance about Nebraska may describe a different rule.^{Source: Neb. Rev. Stat. §30-2302 — share of the spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Nevada

A Nevada answer is always two answers, and the community property half is the one that matters most. All of the community property goes to the surviving spouse where there is no will, because the survivor already owns half outright and the deceased's half passes to them for want of a will. Of the SEPARATE property the spouse takes a half with one child, and only a third where there is more than one child. Nevada never asks whose children they are.^{Source: NRS 123.250 — ownership of survivor on death of spouse (opens in a new tab)•Source: NRS 134.010 — this chapter applies only to separate property (opens in a new tab)•Source: NRS 134.040 — surviving spouse and issue (opens in a new tab)•}
New Hampshire

Not everything, and New Hampshire asks a second question that many states do not reach. Where every surviving child is the couple's and the surviving spouse has no children from anywhere else, the spouse takes the first $250,000 plus half the balance. Where every one of them is still the couple's but the SPOUSE has a child from a previous relationship, the first slice drops to one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Nothing about the deceased's family has changed; the figure moved because of the survivor's own history.^{Source: RSA 561:1 paragraph I — distribution upon intestacy, share of the spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
New Jersey

The whole estate — but only if the survivor also has no children of their own from anywhere else. That second condition is the one families get wrong. Where every one of the deceased's children is shared and the surviving spouse or partner has a child from a previous relationship, the share drops to the first 25% of the estate — not less than fifty thousand dollars and not more than two hundred thousand — plus half of the balance. The survivor's own history reduces their share even though the deceased's children are all shared.^{Source 6}
New Mexico

A quarter of the separate property, and the deceased's half of the community property in full. New Mexico's separate-property share for a spouse with children is the lowest FRACTION in this comparison: Nevada cuts to a third with more than one child and nothing read here goes below a quarter. That is a different measure from Missouri's fixed dollar slice; New Mexico sets no slice at all. In a long marriage the community half is usually the larger part of the estate, so the quarter applies to a smaller pool than it first appears: what was owned before the marriage, and what came in during it by gift or inheritance.^{Source: NMSA 1978 §45-2-102 — share of the spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
New York

The spouse takes a fixed sum plus half the residue, and the children take the balance. The number of children makes no difference to the spouse's share.^{Source 4}
North Carolina

Two answers at once, because North Carolina splits the land from the money. With one child, the spouse takes a one-half undivided interest in the real property; with two or more, a one-third undivided interest. On personal property the spouse takes all of it up to sixty thousand dollars, and above that sixty thousand plus half the balance with one child, or sixty thousand plus a third of the balance with two or more. So a modest estate goes entirely to the spouse and a large one does not, and the house is held with the children as undivided interests rather than divided.^{Source: N.C.G.S. 29-14 — share of the surviving spouse in real and personal property (opens in a new tab)•}
North Dakota

The whole intestate estate, so long as the surviving spouse has no children from anywhere else. Where the spouse does, the first slice is two hundred twenty-five thousand dollars plus half the balance. North Dakota's figures match Montana's exactly, which is what makes a neighboring state's different figure a legislative choice rather than an accident.^{Source: N.D.C.C. 30.1-04-02 — share of spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Ohio

The whole estate to the surviving spouse. Ohio asks only one question — whether every surviving child of the deceased is also a child of the spouse — and where the answer is yes the children take nothing on intestacy. This is the most spouse-favorable answer in the comparison; Illinois splits the same estate in half.^{Source: Ohio R.C. 2105.06 — statute of descent and distribution (opens in a new tab)•}
Oklahoma

Half of everything, and Oklahoma reaches that by a route worth understanding because it matters in the next case. The estate is divided into property acquired by the joint industry of the couple during the marriage and everything else. Where every surviving child is the couple's, the spouse takes an undivided half of BOTH, and the children take the other half.^{Source: 84 O.S. §213(B) — descent and distribution, deaths from 1 July 1985 (opens in a new tab)•}
Oregon

The spouse takes the ENTIRE net intestate estate. Oregon uses no threshold and no fraction that varies with the number of children: where every surviving descendant is also the spouse's, the spouse takes all of it.^{Source: ORS 112.025, 112.035 and 112.045 — intestate shares of a surviving spouse and of others (opens in a new tab)•}
Pennsylvania

The surviving spouse takes the first $30,000 plus one-half of the balance of the intestate estate. The children share the rest. Watch the interaction with a partial intestacy: property the spouse receives under a will counts against that allowance rather than adding to it.^{Source: 20 Pa.C.S. 2102 — the intestate share of a surviving spouse, and where the allowance vanishes (opens in a new tab)•}
Rhode Island

Rhode Island gives a surviving spouse less of the land than any other state here that measures in shares at all, and it is still on the books with a 2014 amendment. Louisiana reaches a comparable result by a different route and the two are not really rankable: Louisiana's survivor already owns half the community outright, while Rhode Island's owns half the possessions. The real estate does not descend to the spouse at all: it goes to the children. The spouse takes a life estate in it, so they may live there for as long as they live and the children own it. Of the personal estate the spouse takes half the surplus outright. There is one route to owning any of the land, and it has a deadline: within six months of the first publication of notice that the administrator has qualified, somebody must petition the probate court, which MAY in its discretion set off up to $150,000 of the real estate to the spouse in fee. Nothing happens if nobody asks.^{Source: R.I. Gen. Laws §33-1-1 — rules of descent for real estate (opens in a new tab)•Source: R.I. Gen. Laws §33-1-5 — life estate descending to spouse (opens in a new tab)•Source: R.I. Gen. Laws §33-1-6 — discretionary allowance of real estate in fee (opens in a new tab)•Source: R.I. Gen. Laws §33-1-10 — surplus personalty not bequeathed (opens in a new tab)•}
South Carolina

One-half of the intestate estate, with no threshold off the top. South Carolina asks nothing about whose children they are.^{Source: S.C. Code §62-2-102 and §62-2-103 — share of the spouse and of other heirs (opens in a new tab)•}
South Dakota

The entire intestate estate. Where every surviving descendant is also the spouse's, South Dakota gives the spouse all of it with no threshold and no fraction.^{Source: SDCL 29A-2-102 — share of the spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Texas

The community estate passes entirely to the surviving spouse — this is the one arrangement Texas handles the way families expect. The separate property does not follow: the spouse takes a third of the separate personal estate, the children take two thirds, and the spouse gets a life estate in a third of the separate land, with the children owning the remainder from the moment of death.^{Source: Texas Estates Code §201.003 — the community estate of an intestate (opens in a new tab)•Source: Texas Estates Code §201.002 — the separate estate of an intestate (opens in a new tab)•}
Utah

The entire intestate estate, however many children there are, and Utah does not ask whether the surviving spouse has children from elsewhere. But read the next paragraph before relying on that, because Utah has a rule only Kentucky, of the states Sahvelo has read, comes close to.^{Source: Utah Code 75-2-102 — intestate share of spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Vermont

The entire intestate estate, however many children there are. Vermont asks one question only, and shared children are not it. There is no first slice and no fraction to work out.^{Source: 14 V.S.A. §311 — share of surviving spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Virginia

The whole estate to the surviving spouse. Where every surviving child of the deceased is also the spouse's, Virginia gives the children nothing on intestacy — the same answer as Ohio, and the opposite of Illinois, which splits half and half regardless.^{Source: Va. Code § 64.2-200 — course of descents generally, and the right of the Commonwealth if there is no other heir (opens in a new tab)•}
Washington

Not a fraction, because a Washington estate is two estates. The survivor takes the deceased's entire half of the net COMMUNITY estate — everything acquired during the marriage other than by gift or inheritance, of which the survivor already owned half — and then half of the net SEPARATE estate. In practice the family home bought during the marriage usually passes to the survivor in full before any fraction is applied, and what the children divide is what the deceased brought in or inherited.^{Source 8}
West Virginia

Everything, unless the surviving spouse has a child from another relationship, in which case three fifths. West Virginia keeps the Uniform Probate Code's questions and uses no dollar figures at all, so three fifths is exactly three fifths whatever the estate is worth.^{Source: W. Va. Code §42-1-3 — share of spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Wisconsin

The entire estate, and a registered domestic partner is treated exactly as a spouse throughout. Wisconsin is one of three states in this comparison that extends the spouse's intestate share to a registered non-marital status, alongside Hawaii's reciprocal beneficiary and Maryland's registered domestic partner.^{Source: Wis. Stat. 852.01(1)(a) — share of the spouse or domestic partner (opens in a new tab)•}
Wyoming

One-half of the estate to the spouse, and the residue to the children and the descendants of any deceased child. No threshold, and the statute's own phrasing is that the estate descends "in parcenary", meaning co-heirs hold together with undivided shares.^{Source: W.S. 2-4-101 — rule of descent, and the abolition of dower and curtesy (opens in a new tab)•}

Spouse, and at least one child is not theirs

The second-marriage case, and the sharpest divergence

The answer in 46 states

Alabama

One half of the intestate estate and no slice at all. Alabama removes the fifty thousand dollars rather than reducing it, as Connecticut and Delaware do.^{Source: Ala. Code §43-8-41 — share of the spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Alaska

The spouse takes one hundred thousand dollars plus half the balance, and the deceased's descendants take the other half. Note that this is a smaller preferential sum than the case above it: where the complication is on the DECEASED's side, Alaska gives the spouse fifty thousand dollars less off the top than where the complication is on the spouse's own side.^{Source: Alaska Court System — Death without a will (intestacy) (opens in a new tab)•}
Arizona

The spouse takes half the separate property and no interest at all in the decedent's half of the community property. The children take that instead — which in a long marriage may be most of the estate.^{Source 1}
California

The spouse still takes all the community property. The separate-property share is a half or a third depending on the number of children, whoever their other parent is.^{Source 2}
Colorado

The first $221,000 plus half of the balance, which is Colorado's lowest first slice of the three. The half that does not go to the spouse passes per capita at each generation to ALL of the deceased's children, the ones from this marriage included, so a child of the marriage and a child from before it share the remainder equally. The amount shown is the one published for a death in 2026; an estate opened now for an earlier death takes that year's figure instead.^{Source: Colorado Department of Revenue — cost of living adjustment for property of estates in probate, prepared 21 January 2026 (opens in a new tab)•Source: C.R.S. §15-11-103 — share of heirs other than surviving spouse and designated beneficiary (opens in a new tab)•Source: C.R.S. §15-10-112 — cost of living adjustment of certain dollar amounts (opens in a new tab)•}
Connecticut

One half of the intestate estate and no first slice at all. Connecticut removes the $100,000 entirely rather than lowering it, as Delaware and Alabama also do; the states that merely lower the figure leave the spouse considerably more.^{Source: Conn. Gen. Stat. §45a-437 — intestate succession, distribution to spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Delaware

Half the intestate personal estate, with no first slice at all, plus a life estate in the real estate. A child of the deceased from an earlier relationship removes the $50,000 entirely rather than reducing it, which is a sharper step than the states that simply lower the figure.^{Source: 12 Del. C. §502 — share of spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Florida

The spouse takes half the intestate estate, and the descendants take the other half.^{Source 3}
Hawaii

The first $100,000 plus one-half of the balance. Hawaii reduces the slice rather than removing it, as Maine and South Dakota do and unlike Missouri and Nebraska, which take it away entirely.^{Source: HRS §560:2-102(4) — where a descendant of the decedent is not the surviving partner's (opens in a new tab)•Source: HRS §560:2-102 — share of spouse or reciprocal beneficiary (opens in a new tab)•}
Idaho

The same. Idaho asks nothing about whose children they are: the community half passes to the spouse and the separate property is halved either way.^{Source: Idaho Code §15-2-102 — share of the spouse, separate and community property (opens in a new tab)•}
Illinois

Exactly the same: half to the spouse, half to the descendants per stirpes. Illinois does not ask whose children they are. That puts Illinois a long way from its neighbors on the same question: Texas and Pennsylvania both cut the surviving spouse's share the moment a child from an earlier relationship appears, and Illinois does not distinguish at all. It is the one place where the blended-family answer is simpler than the ordinary one.^{Source: 755 ILCS 5/2-1 — rules of descent and distribution (opens in a new tab)•}
Indiana

This is where Indiana is unlike anywhere else, and the outcome is severe. If the surviving spouse is a SECOND or later spouse who never at any time had children by the decedent, and the decedent left children or grandchildren by a previous spouse, the spouse does not take half the estate. They take "only an amount equal to twenty-five percent (25%) of the remainder of" the fair market value of the decedent's real property at death minus the liens and encumbrances on it — a quarter of the EQUITY, as a money claim rather than an interest in the land. The house itself vests "at once" in the decedent's children. Personal property is treated normally, at the ordinary one-half. Two conditions are narrow and are the whole of the rule: the spouse must be a second or later spouse who never had children by the decedent, and the decedent must have left children by a previous spouse. Where both are true, an Indiana second marriage without a will produces what almost no couple would choose.^{Source: IC 29-1-2-1(c) — the share of a childless second or subsequent spouse (opens in a new tab)•Source: IC 29-1-2-1(b) — the general intestate share of a surviving spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Iowa

Half of the real property value and half of the other personal property, plus all the exempt personal property, AND a floor: where those come to less than $50,000, the spouse takes additional property until they reach that sum, even to the extent of the whole net estate. A stepchild reduces an Iowa spouse to half of a large estate and to the entirety of a small one. A fixed first slice and a floor sound alike and work differently: a slice is taken off the top before dividing, a floor is applied afterwards and only if the division came out too small.^{Source: Iowa Code §633.212 — share where the issue are not all the spouse's (opens in a new tab)•}
Kansas

Still exactly one half. Kansas never asks whose children they are, so a stepchild of the surviving spouse counts precisely as a child of the marriage. It is one of the states read here where the blended-family question changes nothing.^{Source: K.S.A. 59-504 — surviving spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Kentucky

One half of the real estate, plus half the surplus personalty and the life estate in one third of land owned during the marriage. And then a rule worth knowing before counting on any of it: Kentucky now defines surplus personalty to INCLUDE what passed to the spouse by beneficiary designation, transfer-on-death or payable-on-death, retirement accounts among them, and by joint ownership with right of survivorship, and it credits the spouse's half with those receipts less funeral and burial costs actually paid. Life insurance on the deceased's life is expressly left out. Utah reaches a similar place by treating such receipts as an advancement.^{Source: KRS 391.010 — descent of real estate, effective 15 July 2026 (opens in a new tab)•Source: KRS 392.020 — surviving spouse's interest, dower and curtesy, surplus personalty (opens in a new tab)•}
Louisiana

The same usufruct over the deceased's half of the community, ending on death or remarriage. Louisiana's article does not ask whose descendants they are: any descendant of the deceased produces the usufruct rather than ownership. The deceased's separate property, meaning what was owned before the marriage or received during it by gift or inheritance, goes to the descendants and the spouse has no claim on it under these articles.^{Source: La. Civ. Code art. 890 — usufruct of surviving spouse (opens in a new tab)•Source: La. Civ. Code art. 888 — succession rights of descendants (opens in a new tab)•}
Maine

One-half of the intestate estate, and the fixed slice goes entirely. So Maine has four different answers depending on whose children survive, which only New Hampshire, with five, exceeds. In a second marriage in Maine the statute will not produce what most couples assume.^{Source: Maine 18-C M.R.S. §2-102 — share of the spouse, where the spouse has other descendants (opens in a new tab)•}
Maryland

A minor child still comes first: if any surviving child is a minor, the share is one half whoever their other parent is. Only where no minor child survives does the stepchild question arise, and then the spouse takes the first $100,000 plus half the residue.^{Source: Md. Code, Est. & Trusts §3-102 — share of surviving spouse or registered domestic partner (opens in a new tab)•}
Massachusetts

One hundred thousand dollars plus half the balance. Massachusetts is unusual in pricing the two blended-family cases identically: whether the child from another relationship is the deceased's or the survivor's, the first slice is the same.^{Source: MGL c.190B §2-102 — share of spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Michigan

It depends which way the stepchildren run, and Michigan is one of a handful of states that distinguishes, alongside Montana, North Dakota and New Hampshire. Massachusetts and Minnesota ask the same question and charge the same amount either way. Where one or more but not all of the deceased's descendants are not the spouse's, the spouse takes the larger first slice plus half the balance. Where NONE of the deceased's descendants are the spouse's — a second marriage where every child is from the first — the printed first slice drops from one hundred and fifty thousand to one hundred thousand, and the spouse still takes half the balance. Both are indexed: for a death in 2026 the two slices are $301,000 and $201,000.^{Source: MCL 700.2102 — intestate share of a surviving spouse (opens in a new tab)•Source: Michigan Department of Treasury — Estates and Protected Individuals Code cost-of-living adjustments, certified 30 January 2026 (opens in a new tab)•}
Minnesota

The first $225,000 plus half the balance, and the descendants take the rest. Minnesota charges the same amount here as in the other blended-family case, which Montana and North Dakota do not.^{Source: Minn. Stat. 524.2-102 — share of the spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Missouri

One-half of the intestate estate, and the fixed slice disappears entirely. Missouri's blended-family penalty is a forfeiture rather than a reduction, unlike Maine, Nebraska and South Dakota, which keep a smaller slice.^{Source: RSMo 474.010 — general rules of descent (opens in a new tab)•}
Montana

The first one hundred fifty thousand dollars plus half the balance, with the descendants taking the other half. Montana keeps the Uniform Probate Code's recommended figures without indexing them, so this is the same amount the model act named in 1990.^{Source: MCA 72-2-112 — share of spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Nebraska

One-half of the intestate estate, with the fixed slice gone. Like Missouri, Nebraska takes the slice away rather than reducing it.^{Source: Neb. Rev. Stat. §30-2302 — share of the spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Nevada

The same as if the children were the couple's, because Nevada does not ask. The community property passes to the spouse entire; the separate property goes half to the spouse with one child of the deceased and a third with more than one, whoever their other parent is. Nevada is one of the states read here where the blended-family question changes nothing at all.^{Source: NRS 123.250 — ownership of survivor on death of spouse (opens in a new tab)•Source: NRS 134.040 — surviving spouse and issue (opens in a new tab)•}
New Hampshire

The first one hundred thousand dollars plus half the balance, which is the lowest of New Hampshire's four figures. A single child of the deceased from an earlier relationship takes the spouse from $250,000 down to that amount, and the children divide the other half of the balance between them.^{Source: RSA 561:1 paragraph I — distribution upon intestacy, share of the spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
New Jersey

The first 25% of the estate, floored at fifty thousand dollars and capped at two hundred thousand, plus half of the balance. New Jersey applies the same reduced share whichever direction the step-relationship runs: a child of the deceased who is not the survivor's produces it, and so does a child of the survivor who is not the deceased's.^{Source 6}
New Mexico

The same quarter of the separate property, because New Mexico does not ask whose children they are. A stepchild of the surviving spouse counts exactly as a child of the marriage, so the blended-family question that most of this topic turns on is not put at all. The community half still passes to the spouse whole.^{Source: NMSA 1978 §45-2-102 — share of the spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
New York

The same as any other case with issue: a fixed sum plus half the residue to the spouse, the balance to the issue. Whose children they are is irrelevant.^{Source 4}
North Carolina

The same. North Carolina's section turns on how many children there are, not on whose they are — the fractions and the sixty-thousand-dollar first slice apply identically whether the children are the surviving spouse's or not. Ohio, by contrast, moves the spouse's first slice between the whole estate, sixty thousand and twenty thousand depending exactly on that question. On top of whatever they take, the spouse has a $60,000 year's allowance, and where the person died intestate it is in addition to their share rather than charged against it.^{Source: N.C.G.S. 29-14 — share of the surviving spouse in real and personal property (opens in a new tab)•Source: N.C.G.S. 30-15 — the surviving spouse's year's allowance (opens in a new tab)•}
North Dakota

The first one hundred fifty thousand dollars plus half the balance. North Dakota writes its amounts in words rather than numerals, which is worth knowing if you go looking for the figure in the statute and search for a dollar sign.^{Source: N.D.C.C. 30.1-04-02 — share of spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Ohio

It changes completely, and Ohio is unusually precise about how much. With one child who is not the spouse's, the spouse takes the first twenty thousand dollars plus half the balance and the child takes the rest. With more than one child, the spouse takes the first sixty thousand dollars if they are a parent of one but not all of the children, or the first twenty thousand if they are a parent of none, plus a third of the balance — and the children divide the remainder equally. So a spouse who is a stepparent to one of four children is in a materially better position than one who is a stepparent to all four, and both are far worse off than a spouse whose stepchildren predeceased.^{Source: Ohio R.C. 2105.06 — statute of descent and distribution (opens in a new tab)•}
Oklahoma

Half of what the couple built together, and then only a child's equal share of the rest. Where one or more of the deceased's children is not the spouse's, Oklahoma splits on two tracks: the spouse keeps an undivided half of the property acquired by the joint industry of the couple during the marriage, and of everything else takes an equal part with each living child and the descendants of any child who died. So with three children from an earlier relationship the spouse takes a quarter of whatever the deceased brought into the marriage or inherited, and the children take three quarters of it.^{Source: 84 O.S. §213(B) — descent and distribution, deaths from 1 July 1985 (opens in a new tab)•}
Oregon

One-half of the net intestate estate, and the children take the rest. One child who is not the spouse's moves Oregon from everything to half on a single question, with no first slice to soften it. Vermont does exactly the same, and Virginia goes further, from everything to a third.^{Source: ORS 112.025, 112.035 and 112.045 — intestate shares of a surviving spouse and of others (opens in a new tab)•}
Pennsylvania

The allowance disappears completely. Where even one surviving child is not the surviving spouse's, the spouse takes one-half of the intestate estate and no $30,000 off the top. It is not scaled down in proportion to how many children are shared — a single child from an earlier relationship removes the whole allowance. That edge is invisible until it applies, and it is sharper than in the states here that soften the drop with a first slice.^{Source: 20 Pa.C.S. 2102 — the intestate share of a surviving spouse, and where the allowance vanishes (opens in a new tab)•}
Rhode Island

The same as if the children were the couple's, because Rhode Island does not ask. Real estate to the children with a life estate to the spouse, half the personal surplus to the spouse, and the same discretionary set-off of up to $150,000 if a petition is filed within six months. Rhode Island is one of the few states where the blended-family question changes nothing, and that is not generosity: the spouse's position is already the narrowest here.^{Source: R.I. Gen. Laws §33-1-1 — rules of descent for real estate (opens in a new tab)•Source: R.I. Gen. Laws §33-1-5 — life estate descending to spouse (opens in a new tab)•Source: R.I. Gen. Laws §33-1-6 — discretionary allowance of real estate in fee (opens in a new tab)•Source: R.I. Gen. Laws §33-1-10 — surplus personalty not bequeathed (opens in a new tab)•}
South Carolina

Still one-half. A stepchild changes nothing in South Carolina, which is unusual: Oregon, Maine, Nebraska, South Dakota and Missouri all treat this case differently from the shared-children case.^{Source: S.C. Code §62-2-102 and §62-2-103 — share of the spouse and of other heirs (opens in a new tab)•}
South Dakota

The first $100,000 plus one-half of the balance. The slice is kept rather than forfeited, so South Dakota's blended-family penalty is a reduction. Note also what South Dakota does NOT do: unlike Maine, Nebraska and Colorado, it does not reduce the spouse's share because the SPOUSE has children of their own.^{Source: SDCL 29A-2-102 — share of the spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Texas

This is where Texas surprises people. Because one surviving child is not the surviving spouse's, the deceased's undivided one-half interest in the community estate passes to the children rather than to the spouse. The widow keeps her own half and co-owns the rest — the house included — with her stepchildren. The separate property splits as it does in any Texas estate with children. Two things soften that, and both matter more than the arithmetic. Everything either spouse possessed is presumed community property, and proving an asset was separate takes clear and convincing evidence, so the default is the half-and-half answer rather than the one a stepchild may assert. And owning the house is not the same as being able to live in it or sell it: the homestead may not be partitioned for as long as the surviving spouse elects to occupy it, which means the stepchildren can own their share for decades without being able to realize it.^{Source: Texas Estates Code §201.003 — the community estate of an intestate (opens in a new tab)•Source: Texas Estates Code §201.002 — the separate estate of an intestate (opens in a new tab)•Source: Texas Family Code §§3.001–3.003 — separate property, community property, and the presumption (opens in a new tab)•Source: Texas Estates Code §§102.002–102.006 — passage of the homestead and the bar on partition (opens in a new tab)•}
Utah

The first $75,000 plus half the balance, which is among the lowest first slices here; Missouri's is lower, and Delaware's and Alabama's are lower again. And then the rule that can change the answer completely: whatever the spouse received OUTSIDE probate, such as life insurance, a payable-on-death account or a joint account, is added back into the pot for the purpose of working out everybody's share, and is then charged against the spouse's own share as an advancement. The statute says this is conclusive, meaning there is nothing to argue about. Kentucky reaches a similar result from the other direction, by defining surplus personalty to include such receipts and crediting them, and by expressly excluding life insurance where Utah does not. A Utah spouse who was the beneficiary of a policy may take little or nothing of the probate estate.^{Source: Utah Code 75-2-102 — intestate share of spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Vermont

One half of the intestate estate, and the descendants take the other half by right of representation. This is the only question Vermont asks, and it is asked about the DECEASED's side alone: unlike Alaska, Florida, Hawaii, Maine, Nebraska and New Hampshire, whether the surviving spouse has children from elsewhere makes no difference. There is a clause worth reading twice, because it does real work in a section about dying without a will: the outside descendant must not have been excluded by the deceased's will. Where a will disinherits a child from an earlier relationship but leaves the rest of the estate undisposed of, the spouse is back to the whole of it.^{Source: 14 V.S.A. §311 — share of surviving spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Virginia

A cliff, and the sharpest of the states here that answer with a fraction of the whole estate. If one or more of the deceased's surviving children or their descendants are not the spouse's, two thirds of the estate goes to the children and their descendants and one third to the spouse. There is no middle: everything, or a third. A widow whose husband's three children are all hers takes the whole estate; the same widow with one stepchild added takes a third while the four children divide two thirds. Ohio answers the same question with a sliding first slice, Michigan with a shifting fraction, and Illinois by refusing to ask it.^{Source: Va. Code § 64.2-200 — course of descents generally, and the right of the Commonwealth if there is no other heir (opens in a new tab)•}
Washington

Exactly the same, and Washington is notable for that. The statute draws no distinction between a child of both and a child from an earlier relationship — issue is issue. So the blended-family reduction that Michigan, New Jersey and several others apply does not exist here, and a child from a first marriage takes the same share as a shared one.^{Source 8}
West Virginia

One half, with no first slice underneath it. Because there is no fixed amount taken off the top, a small West Virginia estate divides as sharply as a large one: the arithmetic never quietly gives the spouse everything.^{Source: W. Va. Code §42-1-3 — share of spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Wisconsin

Half, but half of much less than the reader will assume. Wisconsin is a marital property state, and the half share expressly excludes the deceased's interest in marital property and in property the couple held equally as tenants in common. The statute's own annotation records the consequence: the survivor takes no interest in the marital property at all, so all of the deceased's share of it passes to the children. In a long marriage most of what the couple accumulated is marital property, so a Wisconsin survivor in a blended family may receive half of a small fraction of the estate.^{Source: Wis. Stat. 852.01(1)(a) — share of the spouse or domestic partner (opens in a new tab)•Source: Wis. Stat. 852.01(1)(a)2 — marital property excluded from the spouse's share (opens in a new tab)•}
Wyoming

Still one-half. Wyoming, like South Carolina and Idaho, asks nothing about whose children they are.^{Source: W.S. 2-4-101 — rule of descent, and the abolition of dower and curtesy (opens in a new tab)•}

Spouse, and no children

The answer in 46 states

Alabama

Not everything, if a parent of the deceased is alive: the first $100,000 plus half the balance, with the parent taking the other half of the balance. Alabama pairs its larger slice with only half the balance where Maine, Montana, North Dakota, Connecticut and Massachusetts pair theirs with three quarters, so on a substantial estate an Alabama parent takes considerably more. One clause answers a question multi-state families actually have: where the estate is located in two or more states, the share may not exceed in the aggregate the amounts this chapter allows, so the first slice cannot be claimed twice.^{Source: Ala. Code §43-8-41 — share of the spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Alaska

It depends on whether the deceased's parents are alive, which several states read here do not ask at this point. Where no descendants and no parents survive, the surviving spouse takes everything. Where no descendants survive but both parents do, the spouse takes two hundred thousand dollars plus three quarters of the balance — so the parents are not cut out, and a modest estate may be entirely consumed by the preferential sum before they reach anything.^{Source: Alaska Court System — Death without a will (intestacy) (opens in a new tab)•}
Arizona

The spouse takes the entire intestate estate.^{Source 1}
California

The spouse takes everything only if there is also no parent, sibling, or issue of a deceased sibling. Otherwise the spouse takes half the separate property and those relatives take the other half.^{Source 2}
Colorado

The entire intestate estate only if no parent of the deceased survives either. Where a parent does survive, the spouse takes the first $442,000 plus three-quarters of the balance and the parent takes what is left. Colorado is one of the states that puts a surviving parent ahead of a childless spouse, as Maine, Nebraska, Idaho, Delaware, Montana and North Dakota do among the states Sahvelo has read.^{Source: Colorado Department of Revenue — cost of living adjustment for property of estates in probate, prepared 21 January 2026 (opens in a new tab)•Source: C.R.S. §15-11-102 — share of spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Connecticut

Not everything, if a parent of the deceased is alive: the first $100,000 plus three quarters of the balance, with the parent taking the remaining quarter. With no parent and no issue, the whole estate.^{Source: Conn. Gen. Stat. §45a-437 — intestate succession, distribution to spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Delaware

Not everything, if a parent of the deceased is alive. The spouse takes the first $50,000 of the personal estate plus half the balance of it, plus a life estate in the real estate, and the parents take the rest. Delaware treats a surviving parent exactly as it treats shared children, which is unusual: the two cases are word for word the same in the statute.^{Source: 12 Del. C. §502 — share of spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Florida

The spouse takes the entire intestate estate.^{Source 3}
Hawaii

Not everything, if a parent of the decedent survives: then the first $200,000 plus three-quarters of the balance, and the parent takes the rest. The whole estate passes to the spouse or reciprocal beneficiary only where there is neither a descendant nor a parent.^{Source: HRS §560:2-102 — share of spouse or reciprocal beneficiary (opens in a new tab)•}
Idaho

The community half still passes to the spouse. As to separate property the spouse takes everything only if no parent of the decedent survives; where a parent does survive, the spouse takes one-half of the separate property and the parent takes the rest. Sahvelo has not read Idaho's definitions of community and separate property, and in Idaho that distinction decides almost everything.^{Source: Idaho Code §15-2-102 — share of the spouse, separate and community property (opens in a new tab)•}
Illinois

The entire estate to the surviving spouse. Illinois does not give a share to the deceased's parents or siblings where there is a spouse and no descendant.^{Source: 755 ILCS 5/2-1 — rules of descent and distribution (opens in a new tab)•}
Indiana

Three-quarters of the net estate where a parent of the decedent survives, and all of it where no parent does. The three-quarters is generous by comparison: Maine gives the same fraction only above a fixed slice, and Nebraska and Idaho give a childless spouse half in the same circumstance.^{Source: IC 29-1-2-1(b) — the general intestate share of a surviving spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Iowa

The same as where the children are shared: the whole value of the real property, the exempt personal property, and everything else not needed for debts. Iowa does not put a surviving parent ahead of a childless spouse.^{Source: Iowa Code §633.211 — share of surviving spouse where the issue are shared (opens in a new tab)•}
Kansas

The entire estate. A surviving parent of the deceased takes nothing ahead of a childless spouse in Kansas.^{Source: K.S.A. 59-504 — surviving spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Kentucky

The entirety of the real estate where no descendant survives, plus half the surplus personalty and the life estate described above. A surviving parent of the deceased takes nothing ahead of a childless spouse under the version in force since 15 July 2026.^{Source: KRS 391.010 — descent of real estate, effective 15 July 2026 (opens in a new tab)•Source: KRS 392.020 — surviving spouse's interest, dower and curtesy, surplus personalty (opens in a new tab)•}
Louisiana

Ownership, and childlessness is the whole variable. Where the deceased leaves no descendants the surviving spouse succeeds to the deceased's share of the community property outright, rather than taking a usufruct over it. The separate property is a different question and does not come to the spouse ahead of the deceased's family.^{Source: La. Civ. Code art. 889 — devolution of community property (opens in a new tab)•}
Maine

Not everything, if a parent of the decedent survives. The spouse takes the first $300,000 plus three-quarters of the balance and the parent takes the rest. Three-quarters is generous as these provisions go and the slice is among the largest here, tied with Montana's and North Dakota's and behind Michigan's indexed figure, but on an estate above it the parent's quarter is real money the spouse does not get. The spouse takes the whole estate only where there is neither a descendant nor a parent.^{Source: Maine 18-C M.R.S. §2-102 — share of the spouse, where a parent survives (opens in a new tab)•}
Maryland

The entire intestate estate. With no surviving minor child and no issue at all, neither a parent nor anybody else takes ahead of the spouse or registered domestic partner. The net estate is worked out without deducting the Maryland estate tax.^{Source: Md. Code, Est. & Trusts §3-102 — share of surviving spouse or registered domestic partner (opens in a new tab)•}
Massachusetts

Not everything, if a parent of the deceased is alive: the spouse takes the first $200,000 plus three quarters of the balance and the parent takes the remaining quarter. With no parent and no descendant, the spouse takes the whole estate.^{Source: MGL c.190B §2-102 — share of spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Michigan

The entire estate, but only if no parent of the deceased survives either. Where there is no descendant and a parent is living, the spouse takes the first slice plus three quarters of the balance and the parent takes the rest — so a surviving parent-in-law is a real claimant in Michigan, as in North Carolina.^{Source: MCL 700.2102 — intestate share of a surviving spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Minnesota

The entire intestate estate. A surviving parent of the deceased takes nothing ahead of a childless spouse in Minnesota, unlike Montana and North Dakota, whose statutes are otherwise almost word for word the same.^{Source: Minn. Stat. 524.2-102 — share of the spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Missouri

The entire intestate estate. A surviving parent takes nothing ahead of a childless spouse in Missouri.^{Source: RSMo 474.010 — general rules of descent (opens in a new tab)•}
Montana

Not everything, if a parent of the deceased is alive: the spouse takes the first $300,000 plus three quarters of the balance and the parent takes the rest. That first slice is among the largest here, tied with Maine's and North Dakota's, so on a great many estates of this kind the arithmetic gives the spouse everything and the rule never bites. Where there is no surviving parent and no descendant, the spouse takes the whole estate outright.^{Source: MCA 72-2-112 — share of spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Nebraska

The entire estate only if no PARENT of the decedent survives either. Where a parent does survive, the spouse takes the first $150,000 plus one-half of the balance and the parent takes the rest, which surprises people who assume a marriage displaces a mother.^{Source: Neb. Rev. Stat. §30-2302 — share of the spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Nevada

Still not all of the separate property. A living parent of the deceased takes a quarter, and two living parents a quarter each, leaving the spouse a half. With no parent either, half the separate property goes to the spouse and half to the deceased's brothers and sisters. Only when there is no issue, no parent, no sibling and no child of any issue does the spouse take the separate property outright. The community property goes to the spouse entire throughout.^{Source: NRS 123.250 — ownership of survivor on death of spouse (opens in a new tab)•Source: NRS 134.050 — surviving spouse and no issue (opens in a new tab)•}
New Hampshire

Not everything, if a parent of the deceased is alive. The spouse takes the first $250,000 plus three quarters of the balance and the parent or parents take the remaining quarter. Where there is no surviving parent and no issue, the spouse takes the whole intestate estate.^{Source: RSA 561:1 paragraph I — distribution upon intestacy, share of the spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
New Jersey

The entire estate where no descendant and no parent of the deceased survives. Where a parent is living and there are no descendants, the survivor takes the first 25% — floored at fifty thousand and capped at two hundred thousand — plus three quarters of the balance, and the parent takes the rest.^{Source 6}
New Mexico

The entire separate property, plus the deceased's half of the community property. A surviving parent of the deceased takes nothing ahead of a childless spouse in New Mexico, and the presence of children is the only variable the section asks about.^{Source: NMSA 1978 §45-2-102 — share of the spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
New York

The whole estate passes to the spouse.^{Source 4}
North Carolina

Not necessarily everything, which surprises people. Where there is no child or descendant of a child but a parent of the deceased survives, the spouse takes a one-half undivided interest in the real property and, on the personal property, a first slice and a share rather than the whole. Only where there is no child, no descendant of a child and no surviving parent does the spouse take all the real property. A surviving parent-in-law is a real claimant in North Carolina.^{Source: N.C.G.S. 29-14 — share of the surviving spouse in real and personal property (opens in a new tab)•}
North Dakota

The first $300,000 plus three quarters of the balance where a parent of the deceased survives, with the parent taking the remaining quarter. Where no parent and no descendant survives, the spouse takes the whole intestate estate.^{Source: N.D.C.C. 30.1-04-02 — share of spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Ohio

The whole estate to the surviving spouse, with no share for the deceased's parents or siblings.^{Source: Ohio R.C. 2105.06 — statute of descent and distribution (opens in a new tab)•}
Oklahoma

Not everything, and Oklahoma's second group is wider than most. A childless spouse takes the whole estate only where no parent AND no brother or sister of the deceased survives. Where a parent or a sibling does, the spouse takes all the property acquired by the couple's joint industry plus one third of the remainder, and two thirds of what the deceased brought in separately goes to the parents or, failing them, the siblings. A brother-in-law can end up a co-owner.^{Source: 84 O.S. §213(B)(1) — childless spouse, parent or sibling surviving (opens in a new tab)•}
Oregon

The entire net intestate estate. Unlike Maine, Nebraska, Idaho and Colorado, a surviving parent of the decedent takes nothing ahead of a childless spouse in Oregon.^{Source: ORS 112.025, 112.035 and 112.045 — intestate shares of a surviving spouse and of others (opens in a new tab)•}
Pennsylvania

It depends on whether the deceased's parents are alive, which surprises couples who assumed the survivor takes everything. With no surviving issue and no surviving parent, the spouse takes the entire intestate estate. With no issue but a surviving parent or parents, the spouse takes the first $30,000 plus half the balance, and the parents take the rest. Siblings do not share at this level — they only reach the estate if no parent survives.^{Source: 20 Pa.C.S. 2102 — the intestate share of a surviving spouse, and where the allowance vanishes (opens in a new tab)•Source: 20 Pa.C.S. 2103 — the order of intestate succession as amended by Act 50 of 2025 (opens in a new tab)•}
Rhode Island

Still not the land outright. The real estate descends to the parents of the deceased, or failing them the brothers and sisters, subject to the spouse's life estate and the same discretionary set-off. Of the personal surplus a childless spouse takes $50,000 plus half the remainder, which is the one place Rhode Island is more generous where there are no children.^{Source: R.I. Gen. Laws §33-1-1 — rules of descent for real estate (opens in a new tab)•Source: R.I. Gen. Laws §33-1-5 — life estate descending to spouse (opens in a new tab)•Source: R.I. Gen. Laws §33-1-6 — discretionary allowance of real estate in fee (opens in a new tab)•Source: R.I. Gen. Laws §33-1-10 — surplus personalty not bequeathed (opens in a new tab)•}
South Carolina

The entire intestate estate. A surviving parent of the decedent takes nothing ahead of a childless spouse.^{Source: S.C. Code §62-2-102 and §62-2-103 — share of the spouse and of other heirs (opens in a new tab)•}
South Dakota

The entire intestate estate, full stop. South Dakota does not put a surviving parent of the decedent ahead of a childless spouse, where Nebraska, Idaho, Maine and Colorado all do.^{Source: SDCL 29A-2-102 — share of the spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Texas

The spouse takes all the separate personal estate and half the separate land outright. The other half of the land passes by descent — to the deceased's parents, siblings or their descendants. Only where no parent and no sibling or their descendants survive does the spouse take the entire estate. The community estate passes wholly to the spouse.^{Source: Texas Estates Code §201.002 — the separate estate of an intestate (opens in a new tab)•Source: Texas Estates Code §201.003 — the community estate of an intestate (opens in a new tab)•}
Utah

The entire intestate estate. A surviving parent of the deceased takes nothing ahead of a childless spouse in Utah.^{Source: Utah Code 75-2-102 — intestate share of spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Vermont

The entire intestate estate. A surviving parent of the deceased takes nothing ahead of a childless spouse in Vermont, where New Hampshire, Maine, Nebraska, Idaho, Delaware, Colorado, Montana and North Dakota all give a parent a share.^{Source: 14 V.S.A. §311 — share of surviving spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Virginia

The whole estate to the surviving spouse. Virginia gives no share to the deceased's parents or siblings where a spouse survives and there are no children or their descendants.^{Source: Va. Code § 64.2-200 — course of descents generally, and the right of the Commonwealth if there is no other heir (opens in a new tab)•}
Washington

The whole of the community estate, plus three quarters of the separate estate where a parent of the deceased or a sibling survives — and the whole of the separate estate too where there is no surviving issue, parent or issue of a parent.^{Source 8}
West Virginia

The entire intestate estate. A surviving parent of the deceased takes nothing ahead of a childless spouse in West Virginia, where Connecticut, Alabama, Maine, Montana and North Dakota all give a parent a share.^{Source: W. Va. Code §42-1-3 — share of spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Wisconsin

The entire estate. A surviving parent of the deceased takes nothing ahead of a childless spouse or domestic partner in Wisconsin.^{Source: Wis. Stat. 852.01(1)(a) — share of the spouse or domestic partner (opens in a new tab)•}
Wyoming

The whole of the real and personal estate vests in the surviving husband or wife. Wyoming also records that dower and curtesy are abolished, so whatever a family has heard about a widow's dower right, this section is the answer.^{Source: W.S. 2-4-101 — rule of descent, and the abolition of dower and curtesy (opens in a new tab)•}

No surviving spouse

The answer in 46 states

Alabama

The part not passing to the spouse, or the whole estate where there is no spouse, goes to the issue, then the parents, then the issue of the parents, then the grandparents and their issue split between the paternal and maternal sides.^{Source: Ala. Code §43-8-42 — share of heirs other than surviving spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Alaska

Not established, and no order is asserted. The Alaska Court System's table Sahvelo has read sets out the surviving spouse's share and stops there; the order in which descendants, parents, siblings and remoter kin take where there is no spouse is in the statute, which Sahvelo has not read. Ask the probate court, or read AS 13.12 directly, before relying on an order.^{Source: Alaska Court System — Death without a will (intestacy) (opens in a new tab)•}
Arizona

To the descendants by representation; then parents equally or the survivor; then the descendants of the parents by representation; then half to each grandparents' line.^{Source 1}
California

To the issue; then parents equally; then the issue of the parents; then grandparents or their issue.^{Source 2}
Colorado

To the deceased's descendants per capita at each generation; then to the parents, the estate divided into as many equal shares as there are surviving parents plus deceased parents who left descendants; then to the descendants of those parents, which is where brothers and sisters take; then to the grandparents on the same divided pattern, and then to their descendants. Per capita at each generation is not per stirpes, and the difference is money: it pools the shares of everybody who has died at a generation and divides that pool equally among the living takers below it.^{Source: C.R.S. §15-11-103 — share of heirs other than surviving spouse and designated beneficiary (opens in a new tab)•}
Connecticut

The residue is distributed equally among the children, including a child born after the death, and the legal representatives of any who died first, with a child who received an advancement in the deceased's lifetime credited with it. One Connecticut rule can remove a taker before any of this: a surviving spouse who abandoned the deceased without sufficient cause, and continued the abandonment until the death, takes no intestate share at all.^{Source: Conn. Gen. Stat. §45a-436(g) — abandonment bars the share (opens in a new tab)•}
Delaware

To the issue per stirpes, then the parents equally, then the issue of the parents per stirpes, and then to the next of kin and the issue of a deceased next of kin. Delaware does not stop at the descendants of grandparents the way the Uniform Probate Code states do, and it does not stop at a stated degree the way New Hampshire does: the search runs on until somebody is found. Property going to two or more people goes to them as tenants in common, and a relative connected through two lines takes the larger single share, not both.^{Source: 12 Del. C. §503 — share of heirs other than surviving spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Florida

To the descendants; then the parents equally or the survivor; then brothers and sisters and the descendants of deceased ones; then half to the paternal and half to the maternal kindred.^{Source 3}
Hawaii

To the descendants by representation; then to the parents equally. But Hawaii carries an exception Sahvelo has found nowhere else, and it is for the worst case: where the person who died was a MINOR, a parent shown by clear and convincing evidence to have deserted them for ninety days, or failed to communicate for a year, or failed to support them for a year against a support order, "shall be deemed to have predeceased the decedent" and inherits nothing. Whether a particular history meets that standard is a question for a lawyer, but the family has something to prove rather than nothing.^{Source: HRS §560:2-103 — share of heirs other than a spouse or reciprocal beneficiary, and the abandoning parent (opens in a new tab)•}
Idaho

To the issue, by representation where they are of unequal degree; then to the parents equally; then to the issue of the parents; then half to the paternal grandparents or their issue and half to the maternal. "By representation" is the mechanism families are most often surprised by: four grandchildren from one deceased child divide that child's single share, rather than taking four shares.^{Source: Idaho Code §15-2-103 — share of heirs other than the surviving spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Illinois

The descendants take the entire estate per stirpes. Failing them, it goes to the parents, brothers and sisters in equal parts, with a double portion to a surviving parent where the other has died and a deceased sibling's share dropping to that sibling's own children. Failing them, the estate splits in two — half to the maternal grandparents or their descendants, half to the paternal — and where one side has died out entirely the other side takes the whole.^{Source: 755 ILCS 5/2-1 — rules of descent and distribution (opens in a new tab)•}
Indiana

To the issue, by representation where they are of unequal degree. Where there is neither spouse nor issue, Indiana does something unusual among the states read here: parents and siblings share the SAME class, each living parent "treated as of the same degree as a brother or sister", with a floor that protects the parent — "the share of each parent shall be not less than one-fourth (1/4) of the decedent's net estate." So an unmarried, childless Indiana decedent with a surviving mother and three siblings does not leave everything to the mother, and she cannot be reduced below a quarter however many siblings there are. Missouri shares parents and siblings the same way and adds no floor.^{Source: IC 29-1-2-1(d) — the share of heirs other than the surviving spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Iowa

What the spouse's categories would have taken passes instead to the issue, and Iowa's chapter directs the estate of a person dying intestate to descend as provided in the sections beginning at 633.211. Sahvelo has read the two spouse sections at source and has NOT read the sections that order the remoter relatives, so it does not state that order here.^{Source: Iowa Code §633.211 — share of surviving spouse where the issue are shared (opens in a new tab)•}
Kansas

The property passes to the children and the issue of a child who died first. Sahvelo has read K.S.A. 59-504 at source and has NOT read the sections ordering the remoter relatives, so it does not state that order here.^{Source: K.S.A. 59-504 — surviving spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Kentucky

To the children and their descendants; then to the father and mother, one moiety each, with the survivor taking the whole if one has died; then to the brothers and sisters and their descendants; then the grandparents by moieties; then uncles and aunts and their descendants; and then to the STEPCHILDREN of the deceased. Kentucky joins Ohio, New Jersey and North Dakota in putting stepchildren ahead of escheat. Moiety is an old word for a half, and Kentucky still uses it.^{Source: KRS 391.010 — descent of real estate, effective 15 July 2026 (opens in a new tab)•}
Louisiana

The descendants take, in equal portions by heads where they are all the same distance from the deceased and by roots where any of them takes by representation, which is what other states call per stirpes. Failing descendants, Louisiana orders the separate property the opposite way from the common-law states: where a parent and a sibling both survive, the brothers and sisters OWN the separate property and the parents take only a usufruct over it. With no descendants and no parents the siblings own it outright; with no descendants and no siblings the parents do.^{Source: La. Civ. Code art. 888 — succession rights of descendants (opens in a new tab)•Source: La. Civ. Code art. 891 — devolution of separate property (opens in a new tab)•}
Maine

To the decedent's descendants "per capita at each generation", then to the parents equally. Maine's method is not the "by representation" that Idaho, Nebraska and South Carolina use: per capita at each generation pools the shares at each level, so two grandchildren descending from different deceased children receive the same amount as each other. For a family with unequal numbers of grandchildren in different branches the two methods give visibly different results.^{Source: Maine 18-C M.R.S. §2-103 — share of heirs other than the surviving spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Maryland

Sahvelo has read Md. Code, Est. & Trusts §3-102 at source, which sets the spouse's and registered domestic partner's share, and has NOT read the sections ordering the remaining heirs, so it does not state that order here.^{Source: Md. Code, Est. & Trusts §3-102 — share of surviving spouse or registered domestic partner (opens in a new tab)•}
Massachusetts

To the descendants per capita at each generation, then the parents equally, then the descendants of the parents per capita at each generation, then equally to the next of kin in equal degree. Two details change real answers. Per capita at each generation pools the shares at every level, so cousins in the same generation receive the same amount even where their parents' families were different sizes. And degrees of kinship are counted by the rules of civil law, up to the common ancestor and back down, which makes a first cousin a relative of the fourth degree. Massachusetts does not stop at any degree.^{Source: MGL c.190B §2-103 — share of heirs other than surviving spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Michigan

The estate passes down the order the code sets out, beginning with the deceased's descendants. None of the spousal first slices apply, so there is no fixed sum off the top and nothing to index.^{Source: MCL 700.2102 — intestate share of a surviving spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Minnesota

To the descendants by representation, then the parents equally, then the descendants of the parents, then grandparents and their descendants in paternal and maternal halves, then the next of kin in equal degree. Minnesota then breaks ties the way Vermont does not: where two relatives stand at the same degree but claim through different ancestors, the one claiming through the nearer ancestor takes and the other takes nothing.^{Source: Minn. Stat. 524.2-103 — share of heirs other than surviving spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Missouri

To the children or their descendants in equal parts; then, and this is Missouri's own arrangement, to "the decedent's father, mother, brothers and sisters or their descendants in equal parts" — parents and siblings share the SAME class. A decedent with no children, a surviving mother and two brothers leaves each of the three an equal share, where the other states read here exhaust the parents first.^{Source: RSMo 474.010 — general rules of descent (opens in a new tab)•}
Montana

To the descendants by representation, then the parents equally or the surviving parent, then the descendants of the parents by representation, then one half each to the paternal and maternal grandparents or their descendants. Representation is the Uniform Probate Code's method, which pools the shares at the first generation with a living taker: it is not Delaware's per stirpes and not Maine's per capita at each generation, and the three give individual grandchildren different amounts when branches have unequal numbers of children.^{Source: MCA 72-2-113 — share of heirs other than surviving spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Nebraska

To the issue, equally if of the same degree and otherwise by representation; then to the parents equally; then to the issue of the parents; then half to the paternal grandparents or their issue and half to the maternal.^{Source: Neb. Rev. Stat. §30-2303 — share of heirs other than the surviving spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Nevada

With no spouse there is no community property left to divide, so the whole question is about the estate the chapter governs. The issue take it; failing issue the parents equally or the surviving parent; failing them the brothers and sisters, with a deceased sibling's children dividing that sibling's share by right of representation. One thing to check before any of this: a premarital agreement signed by the couple overrides the chapter to the extent the two are inconsistent.^{Source: NRS 134.050(3) and NRS 134.060 — no spouse (opens in a new tab)•Source: NRS 134.005 — applicability as between spouses with a premarital agreement (opens in a new tab)•}
New Hampshire

To the issue, then the parents, then the brothers and sisters and the issue of a deceased sibling, then the grandparents in paternal and maternal halves, then the issue of grandparents. New Hampshire is the only state read here that stops by naming a DEGREE: nothing passes to anybody of the fifth or greater degree of kinship, so where the nearest living relative is a first cousin once removed or more distant, the estate goes to the State and that relative receives nothing. Several states stop at a relationship instead, usually the descendants of grandparents, and others, including Montana, Massachusetts and Virginia, do not stop at all.^{Source: RSA 561:1 paragraph II — share of heirs other than the spouse (opens in a new tab)•Source: RSA 561:1 paragraph II clauses (f) and (g) — the fourth-degree limit and escheat (opens in a new tab)•}
New Jersey

Descendants by representation, then parents equally, then the descendants of parents, then a split between the paternal and maternal grandparents and their descendants with the whole going to one side where the other has nobody, then descendants of grandparents. New Jersey then does something three states here do before giving up: step-children, or their descendants by representation, inherit rather than the estate passing to the State. Ohio and North Dakota reach the same place by their own wording. Note also that a spouse who had filed or been served with an undismissed divorce or dissolution complaint is not a spouse for this section at all.^{Source 7Source 6}
New Mexico

Sahvelo has read NMSA 1978 §45-2-102 at source, which sets the spouse's share, and has NOT read §45-2-103, which orders the remaining heirs. That section is named in the chapter's own cross-references and sits in the same capture, so it is a reading away rather than a retrieval away; until it is read no order is asserted here.^{Source: NMSA 1978 §45-2-102 — share of the spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
New York

To the issue; then the surviving parents; then siblings and their descendants; then grandparents, and then more remote descendants of the grandparents.^{Source 4}
North Carolina

The children take, or the lineal descendants of a deceased child in their place. Failing them the statute works outward through parents and then the wider family under the Intestate Succession Act. The year's allowance still applies where there is a surviving spouse; where there is none, it is not in play, and the estate is distributed under the Act with no first slice off the top.^{Source: N.C.G.S. 29-14 — share of the surviving spouse in real and personal property (opens in a new tab)•Source: N.C.G.S. 30-15 — the surviving spouse's year's allowance (opens in a new tab)•}
North Dakota

To the descendants by representation, then the parents equally or the surviving parent, then the descendants of the parents by representation, then the grandparents and their descendants in paternal and maternal halves. North Dakota writes out the case the halving language obscures: where grandparents or their descendants survive on one side only, the whole estate goes to that side rather than half of it escheating. And before anything escheats, North Dakota turns to STEPCHILDREN: the descendants of a deceased spouse take the estate by representation, and where somebody was widowed more than once the estate divides into one equal share for each deceased spouse's descendants. Ohio and New Jersey have the same instinct.^{Source: N.D.C.C. 30.1-04-03 — share of heirs other than surviving spouse (opens in a new tab)•Source: N.D.C.C. 30.1-04-03(6) — descendants of a deceased spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Ohio

To the children or their lineal descendants per stirpes; then parents equally or the survivor; then brothers and sisters of the whole or half blood or their descendants per stirpes; then half to each set of grandparents or their descendants; then to next of kin, with no representation among them. Then Ohio does something only two other states here do: before the estate escheats, it goes to stepchildren or their lineal descendants per stirpes. In the great majority of the states read here, a stepchild who was raised as a child and never adopted inherits nothing at all on intestacy; in Ohio, New Jersey, North Dakota and Kentucky they are the last people in line before the State.^{Source: Ohio R.C. 2105.06 — statute of descent and distribution (opens in a new tab)•}
Oklahoma

In undivided equal shares to the surviving children and the descendants of a deceased child by right of representation; then to the surviving parent or parents equally; then to the descendants of the parents by representation; then, where one or more grandparents or their descendants survive, half to each side.^{Source: 84 O.S. §213(B) — descent and distribution, deaths from 1 July 1985 (opens in a new tab)•}
Oregon

To the decedent's descendants by representation; then to the surviving parents; then equally to the brothers and sisters, with a deceased sibling's descendants taking that sibling's share between them.^{Source: ORS 112.025, 112.035 and 112.045 — intestate shares of a surviving spouse and of others (opens in a new tab)•}
Pennsylvania

In order: the issue of the deceased; then parents; then the issue of the parents, meaning brothers, sisters and their children; then grandparents, half to the paternal side and half to the maternal, with a side that leaves nobody having its half added to the other; then uncles, aunts and their children and grandchildren. What happens beyond that changed recently, and most descriptions of Pennsylvania law are now wrong about it: an heirless estate no longer escheats straight to the Commonwealth. Under Act 50 of 2025 it passes first to an endowed community fund in the person's own municipality, then their school district, then their county, and only to the Commonwealth if no such fund exists in any of them.^{Source: 20 Pa.C.S. 2103 — the order of intestate succession as amended by Act 50 of 2025 (opens in a new tab)•Source: 20 Pa.C.S. 2102 — the intestate share of a surviving spouse, and where the allowance vanishes (opens in a new tab)•}
Rhode Island

With no spouse the life estate and the set-off fall away entirely and the real estate descends in equal portions: first to the children or their descendants, then to the parents equally or the surviving parent, then to the brothers and sisters and their descendants. The personal surplus is distributed among the same heirs in the same order.^{Source: R.I. Gen. Laws §33-1-1 — rules of descent for real estate (opens in a new tab)•}
South Carolina

To the issue, equally if all of the same degree and otherwise by representation; then to the parents equally; then to the issue of the parents; then half to the paternal grandparents or their issue and half to the maternal.^{Source: S.C. Code §62-2-102 and §62-2-103 — share of the spouse and of other heirs (opens in a new tab)•}
South Dakota

To the descendants by representation; then to the parents equally; then to the descendants of the parents; then half to the paternal grandparents or their descendants and half to the maternal. South Dakota says "descendants" where the older states say "issue", meaning the same thing.^{Source: SDCL 29A-2-103 — shares of heirs other than the surviving spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Texas

Children and their descendants first. If none, equal portions to the mother and father; if only one parent survives, half to that parent and half to the deceased's siblings and their descendants, unless there are no siblings at all. If neither parent survives, the whole estate to siblings and their descendants. Beyond that Texas splits the estate into two halves, one to the paternal kindred and one to the maternal — so a relative on one side does not exclude the other side.^{Source: Texas Estates Code §201.001 — estate of an intestate not leaving a spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Utah

To the descendants by representation, then the parents equally or the surviving parent, then the descendants of the parents, then grandparents and their descendants split between the paternal and maternal sides, in the Uniform Probate Code's order.^{Source: Utah Code 75-2-102 — intestate share of spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Vermont

To the descendants by right of representation, then the parents equally, then the siblings and the descendants of deceased siblings, then the grandparents in paternal and maternal halves with one side taking everything if the other has nobody, and finally to the next of kin in equal degree, sharing equally. That last step matters: Vermont does not rank one next-of-kin above another at the same degree, and does not stop the search the way New Hampshire does.^{Source: 14 V.S.A. §314 — share of heirs other than surviving spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Virginia

Children and their descendants; then parents or the surviving parent; then siblings and their descendants; then the estate divides in half between the two parental lines, working outward through grandparents, uncles and aunts and their descendants, great-grandparents and the siblings of grandparents — and the statute says the search runs on without end to the nearest lineal ancestors and their descendants. Where one parental line has died out entirely the other takes the whole. And before anything escheats, Virginia reaches the deceased's late spouse's family, as Ohio, New Jersey, North Dakota and Kentucky also do in narrower terms: where there is no kindred of either parent, the estate passes to the KINDRED of the deceased's most recent spouse, provided they were still married when that spouse died, as if that spouse had died intestate entitled to it. The other four reach only that spouse's descendants, which is to say the stepchildren; Virginia reaches the whole of their family.^{Source: Va. Code § 64.2-200 — course of descents generally, and the right of the Commonwealth if there is no other heir (opens in a new tab)•}
Washington

The whole net estate passes to the issue, then to a surviving parent or parents, then to the issue of the parents, then to grandparents with the maternal and paternal sides taking half each, then to the issue of grandparents. Where the shares are among people of unequal degree, the more remote take by representation.^{Source 8}
West Virginia

To the descendants by representation, then the parents equally or the surviving parent, then the descendants of the parents, then the grandparents and their descendants divided between the paternal and maternal sides, with one side taking the whole where the other has nobody. West Virginia stops there rather than running on to the next of kin at large.^{Source: W. Va. Code §42-1-3a — share of heirs other than surviving spouse (opens in a new tab)•}
Wisconsin

To the issue per stirpes, then the parents, then the brothers and sisters and the issue of a deceased sibling per stirpes, then the grandparents and their issue in maternal and paternal halves, with one side taking everything where the other has nobody. Failing all of them the estate escheats to the state and is added to the capital of the school fund. Two Wisconsin rules can change who is on this list at all: a will may exclude somebody from an intestate share, and a parent who abandoned a minor child, meaning failed without cause for a full year to communicate with them, care for them and support them, does not inherit from that child. In that case the personal representative who has reason to believe it must petition the court; it is not left to the family to raise.^{Source: Wis. Stat. 852.10(1) and 852.01(3) — disinheritance from an intestate share, and escheat (opens in a new tab)•Source: Wis. Stat. 852.14 — inheritance by a parent who abandons a child (opens in a new tab)•}
Wyoming

To the decedent's kindred, in the course the section sets out. Sahvelo has read the spouse-and-children rules at W.S. 2-4-101 and states those; the remainder of the ladder is in the same and following sections and has not been read here.^{Source: W.S. 2-4-101 — rule of descent, and the abolition of dower and curtesy (opens in a new tab)•}

Sahvelo has read all 46 of these states at their own sources. Another state's rule may differ, and we would rather say that than generalize. Community property, homestead rights and family allowances interact with these shares in ways a page cannot resolve, and a blended family with a house should treat this table as the beginning of a conversation with an attorney rather than the end of one.

Questions people ask about this

Does the surviving spouse get everything?

Only in some of these states and only in some situations. Arizona and Florida give the spouse everything where all the children are shared — but Florida takes that away if the spouse has children of their own by someone else. California splits separate property with the children whoever their parent is, and New York gives the spouse a fixed sum plus half the residue whenever there are children at all.^{Source 1Source 2Source 3Source 4}
We were together for twenty years but never married.

Under intestacy you inherit nothing. That is the harshest rule on this page and it is not discretionary. What may still help: assets held jointly with you, anything naming you as beneficiary, a state that recognizes a common-law marriage formed before it abolished them, and — if you have a claim based on contributions or promises — advice quickly, because those claims are time-limited and difficult.
What happens to the house?

It depends first on how title was held, not on intestacy. A house held jointly with right of survivorship already belongs to the survivor and never enters the estate. A house in the deceased person's sole name passes under the statute, which in a blended family can mean the surviving spouse owns it alongside stepchildren. Several states also give a surviving spouse homestead rights that sit on top of the intestate share.
The children are minors. Who looks after their share?

Not the surviving parent automatically, and this catches people. A minor's inheritance is typically held by a court-supervised guardianship of the estate or a custodial account until they reach majority, with the court overseeing spending. It is administratively heavy and it is one of the strongest arguments for a will with a trust in it.
We found a will after the estate had started.

Tell the court immediately. A valid will admitted later can change who is appointed and who inherits, and steps already taken may have to be undone. Do not distribute anything else in the meantime, and do not decide for yourselves whether the document looks valid.
Is a court process needed at all?

Not always. Every one of these states has a simplified route for smaller estates, and intestacy does not by itself force a full administration. Establish the value and how the assets were held before assuming a full probate is required.

Official links you'll need

Every link goes directly to the issuing agency or the official tool, and opens in a new tab.

Read Arizona's spousal share (A.R.S. §14-2102) (opens in a new tab)

Statute Arizona State Legislature azleg.gov
Read Arizona's order for other heirs (A.R.S. §14-2103) (opens in a new tab)

Statute Arizona State Legislature azleg.gov
Read California's spousal share (Prob. Code §6401) (opens in a new tab)

Statute California Legislative Information leginfo.legislature.ca.gov
Read Florida's spousal share (Fla. Stat. §732.102) (opens in a new tab)

Statute The Florida Senate flsenate.gov
Read New York's descent and distribution rule (EPTL §4-1.1) (opens in a new tab)

Statute New York State Senate nysenate.gov

Where this sits in the process

This makes possible

Finishing this unblocks these.

Do I need probate?no will changes who is appointed and how
Being an executorthe same job, done by a court-appointed administrator

Online will or a lawyerhow to stop this from being the outcome, cheaply and this week
The willwhat to do first if a will might still exist
Wills and truststhe document that replaces every rule on this page
Beneficiary designationswhat passes outside intestacy entirely, and usually most of the value
Small estate proceduresintestacy does not by itself require a full probate
Vehicle title transferwhere the intestate share meets a specific asset
People who depend on youthe planning-side answer for a household the statutory order does not see
Heirs' propertywhat the statute's shares become when nobody ever records them and a second generation dies

Sources

Four intestacy statutes, chosen because they answer the same question four different ways.

A.R.S. §14-2102 and §14-2103 (Intestate succession) (opens in a new tab)

Arizona: whose children they are decides everything.

azleg.gov Checked 2026-08-12
California Probate Code §6401 and §6402 (Intestate succession) (opens in a new tab)

California: all the community property, and a separate-property share that shrinks with the number of children.

leginfo.legislature.ca.gov Checked 2026-08-12
Fla. Stat. §732.102 and §732.103 (Intestate succession) — The Florida Senate (opens in a new tab)

Florida: the spouse's own other children halve the spouse's share.

flsenate.gov Checked 2026-08-12
N.Y. EPTL §4-1.1 (Descent and distribution) — New York State Senate (opens in a new tab)

New York: a fixed sum plus half the residue, whatever the family shape.

nysenate.gov Checked 2026-08-12
29 U.S.C. §1104(a)(1)(D) (Fiduciary duties — plan documents rule) (opens in a new tab)

Why most of an estate by value often never reaches intestacy at all.

law.cornell.edu Checked 2026-08-12
N.J.S.A. 3B:5-3 (Intestate share of surviving spouse, partner in a civil union, domestic partner) (opens in a new tab)

New Jersey: the bracketed first slice, and why the survivor's own children reduce it.

lis.njleg.state.nj.us Checked 2026-08-20
N.J.S.A. 3B:5-4 (Intestate shares of heirs other than the surviving spouse) (opens in a new tab)

New Jersey: the order after the spouse, ending with step-children rather than the State.

lis.njleg.state.nj.us Checked 2026-08-20
RCW 11.04.015 (Descent and distribution of real and personal estate) (opens in a new tab)

Washington: why a community property estate is two estates, and issue is issue.

app.leg.wa.gov Checked 2026-08-20

Sources last reviewed 2026-08-12. Where a source is marked pending re-verification, the page says so wherever the claim appears.

If there is no will

Short answer

What the statute actually does

Not sure which of these is yours?

Who is left out entirely

Who runs the estate

What the family can and cannot change

What the surviving spouse receives, by state

Spouse, and all the children are the couple's

Spouse, and at least one child is not theirs

Spouse, and no children

No surviving spouse

Questions people ask about this

Does the surviving spouse get everything?

We were together for twenty years but never married.

What happens to the house?

The children are minors. Who looks after their share?

We found a will after the estate had started.

Is a court process needed at all?

Official links you'll need

Read Arizona's spousal share (A.R.S. §14-2102) (opens in a new tab)

Read Arizona's order for other heirs (A.R.S. §14-2103) (opens in a new tab)

Read California's spousal share (Prob. Code §6401) (opens in a new tab)

Read Florida's spousal share (Fla. Stat. §732.102) (opens in a new tab)

Read New York's descent and distribution rule (EPTL §4-1.1) (opens in a new tab)

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