If a person dies without a will, he/she is said to have died intestate. When this happens, the probate court turns to intestacy rules to determine who inherits the assets of the estate.
Intestacy rules vary from state to state. You should always consult an attorney or the local probate court if you need to determine the intestacy rules for your particular area.
Generally speaking, intestacy rules distribute an estate’s assets to family members. Spouses and children usually inherit first under intestacy rules. If there are no spouses and/or children, next levels of relatives are considered such as living parents. There will likely be a certain point of relation at which the laws state if no relative is found within the listed relative levels (children, parents, aunts and uncles, cousins, etc.), the person is said to die without relations. If this is the case, the state where the decedent lived is generally the beneficiary of the estate.
