What Happens If You Die Without a Will?

A valid Last Will and Testament allows a person (“Testator”) to have his or her property distributed to designated people or organizations.  A valid Will allows a person to have great control over who receives a person’s property after death, including inclusion or exclusion of family members and friends.

So what happens to your property if you die without a Will?  Does a spouse receive the entire estate?  To answer these questions, we need to know the law applicable to this situation. If a person dies without a Will, he has died “intestate”.  In Pennsylvania, we have an intestate law setting forth who will receive a person’s property if the person dies without a Will.  I find for the most part, very few people would want to distribute their estate in accordance with the Pennsylvania intestate law. 

The intestate statute determines who gets your property based upon what family members are alive at your death.  Perhaps the most misunderstood issue is whether a spouse “gets everything”.  If a person has a wife and their marriage produced children, the spouse does not get everything.  The spouse receives the first $30,000.00 plus half of the balance of the estate.  The children receive the remainder of the estate in equal shares.  If a person has a spouse and has children from a prior relationship, only half of the estate goes to the spouse.  If a person has a spouse and parents alive at his death, half of the estate will go to the spouse and half of the estate will go to the parents.  Finally, if a decedent has no living issue and no living parents, then most likely the spouse will get everything.

As you apply the intestate statute to your present situation, you may be realizing the pitfalls of dying without a Will.  An elderly parent receiving a portion of an adult child’s estate is rarely a good idea.  We generally want to dispossess property as we get older, not subject it to multiple probates.  Intestacy ocassionally results in a wayward adult child or grandchild, incapable of handling money, receiving funds only to be squandered.  And perhaps the most common and troubling intestate situation, the adult children from a previous marriage gaining ownership of property with a second spouse that do not get along. 

As you can see, the distribution of an intestate estate is not simple.  Certainly by the time a person could go through the distribution schemes set forth in the Pennsylvania intestate statute, a valid distribution scheme could be drafted in a Will!  More importantly, not only do valid Wills avoid the pitfalls of intestacy, but also can provide many great benefits to a family after the loss of a loved one.

So what’s the answer?  Does my spouse “get everything” if I die without a Will?  As you can see, the answer depends on who else is alive at the time of your death.

Jim McCarthy is an attorney at the law firm of McCarthy & McCarthy, P.C. (www.mccarthymccarthy.com) and can be reached at JMcCarthy@McCarthyMcCarthy.com . Nothing in this blog is legal advice.  No one should act upon the contents of this blog and should consult an attorney for advice based upon their facts and circumstances before making any decisions.