Florida Inheritance Laws: No Will
When a Florida resident dies without a will (known as intestacy), Florida inheritance laws provide who in the family is entitled to inherit from the estate. If there is a surviving spouse, the surviving spouse takes the following portion of an estate (Florida Statute Section 732.102):
Spouse's share of intestate estate.--The intestate share of the surviving spouse is:
(1) If there is no surviving descendant of the decedent, the entire intestate estate.
(2) If there are surviving descendants of the decedent, all of whom are also lineal descendants of the surviving spouse, the first $60,000 of the intestate estate, plus one-half of the balance of the intestate estate. Property allocated to the surviving spouse to satisfy the $60,000 shall be valued at the fair market value on the date of distribution.
(3) If there are surviving descendants, one or more of whom are not lineal descendants of the surviving spouse, one-half of the intestate estate.
If there are heirs in addition to (or instead of) of a surviving spouse, those other heirs take as follows (Florida Statute Section 732.103):
The part of the intestate estate not passing to the surviving spouse under s. 732.102, or the entire intestate estate if there is no surviving spouse, descends as follows:
(1) To the descendants of the decedent.
(2) If there is no descendant, to the decedent's father and mother equally, or to the survivor of them.
(3) If there is none of the foregoing, to the decedent's brothers and sisters and the descendants of deceased brothers and sisters.
(4) If there is none of the foregoing, the estate shall be divided, one-half of which shall go to the decedent's paternal, and the other half to the decedent's maternal, kindred in the following order:
(a) To the grandfather and grandmother equally, or to the survivor of them.
(b) If there is no grandfather or grandmother, to uncles and aunts and descendants of deceased uncles and aunts of the decedent.
(c) If there is either no paternal kindred or no maternal kindred, the estate shall go to the other kindred who survive, in the order stated above.
(5) If there is no kindred of either part, the whole of the property shall go to the kindred of the last deceased spouse of the decedent as if the deceased spouse had survived the decedent and then died intestate entitled to the estate.
For the non-spouse heirs, the first three provisions are easy: "down" (to children); if no children, then "up" (to parents); and if no parents, then "sideways" and "diagonally" (to siblings and the children of deceased siblings, who would be nieces and nephews). After, that, the estate would go to grandparents, if alive. If there are no living grandparents, then the estate goes to the aunts and uncles of the deceased and their descendants. Finally, the estate passes to the family of the last deceased spouse of the decedent.
