Walk It Through: The Small Estate
A death without a will, a blended family, an affidavit and a creditor's claim.
A parent dies without a will, leaving a spouse and children, one of them from an earlier marriage.
Two things a person in this spot might do. Picking one shows what the law says about it.
One small estate without a will. Property passing by beneficiary designation, joint ownership or a trust, an estate with no heirs, and how property is collected with the affidavit are not worked through here.
A practice walkthrough, not a prediction of how any real one will go. Legal information, not legal advice.
Words this turns on
Terms with a legal meaning that is narrower than the everyday one. Each links to the definition and the authority behind it.
- Net intestate estateWhat passes without a will. A surviving spouse takes all of it when every descendant is also the spouse's, or when there is no descendant, and one-half when one or more descendants are not the spouse's.
- Personal representativeIn a wrongful death action, the person who sues, for the surviving spouse, children, parents, others entitled to inherit, and stepchildren and stepparents, when a death is caused by another's wrongful act or omission.
- Simple estate affidavitThe affidavit by which an estate of not more than $75,000 in personal property and not more than $200,000 in real property may be handled instead of a full probate, filed not until 30 days after the death.