No Will? Connecticut Has One For You, And You Might Not Like It

Ask what happens when a married person dies without a will, and you will usually hear the same answer: “The spouse gets everything.”

In Connecticut, that answer is often wrong.

Dying without a will is called dying intestate. Connecticut's intestacy statutes then decide who receives the property in the probate estate. Those rules do not ask what the person meant to do or what the family expected. They use fixed shares based on which relatives survive.

For a married couple with children, a blended family, or an unmarried couple, the result may be very different from the plan they thought they had.

What A Surviving Spouse Receives

Connecticut General Statutes § 45a-437 sets out four basic situations for a surviving spouse. The figures below describe the intestate estate, not necessarily every asset the person owned.

Consider Maria. In each example, she dies without a will. What her husband receives changes based on who else survives her.

Maria leaves a husband, no children or other descendants, and no living parent. Her husband receives the entire intestate estate. This is the situation in which the familiar assumption is generally correct.

Maria leaves a husband and her mother, but no descendants. Her husband receives the first $100,000 plus three quarters of the balance. Her mother receives the remainder.

Maria leaves a husband and two children, both of whom are also her husband's children. Her husband receives the first $100,000 plus one half of the balance. The rest passes under the rules governing descendants.

Maria leaves a husband and a daughter from an earlier relationship. Her husband receives one half of the intestate estate. The $100,000 preference does not apply because Maria left a descendant who is not also her husband's descendant. For a blended family, this is where the familiar assumption breaks down.

The statute fixes these shares. The dollar result still depends on what is part of the probate estate, along with debts, expenses, taxes, and the facts of the family relationship.

Children And Other Descendants

After the surviving spouse's share is determined, § 45a-438 governs the share passing to children and their legal representatives. If a child died before the parent but left descendants, the statute may pass that branch's share down to those descendants.

In an intestate estate, the administrator may need more than a list of the person's children. That can require establishing who survived, whether a child died earlier, and whether that child left descendants.

Questions about adoption and legal parentage can also affect who qualifies as a child, parent, or next of kin. Those questions should be handled from the records and the statutes, not from assumptions about how the family described itself.

The People The Default Rules May Miss

An unmarried partner generally receives no intestate share solely because of the relationship. Living together for twenty years, sharing household expenses, or raising a family together does not create the same inheritance right as marriage.

A jointly owned home with survivorship rights, an account with a valid beneficiary designation, a trust, or another valid transfer arrangement may still pass property to the partner. If property is in one partner's name and falls into the probate estate, however, the intestacy statutes may send it to relatives instead.

A stepchild who was not adopted does not inherit ahead of a surviving spouse or the statutory line of children and descendants, parents, siblings, and next of kin. Under § 45a-439, however, stepchildren and their legal representatives are a last-resort class when no surviving spouse or qualifying relative is entitled to take.

If you want an unmarried partner, stepchild, friend, or charity to receive part of your estate, relying on the default rules is a poor way to accomplish it.

Intestacy Does Not Control Every Asset

Intestacy governs how the probate estate is distributed after administration expenses, taxes, proper claims, and any court-ordered family support allowance are addressed. The surviving spouse's share is part of that statutory distribution. Some assets pass outside the probate estate because another valid transfer arrangement controls them.

Common examples include life insurance and retirement accounts with valid beneficiary designations, property held with survivorship rights, and assets held in a trust. The exact result depends on the governing document. A name appearing on an account or deed does not always tell you what happens at death.

A spouse may receive one share of the probate estate under § 45a-437 while also receiving other property outside probate. A family may also discover that an old beneficiary form or the way a deed was written sends an asset somewhere no one expected.

A will is only one part of the plan. Also check the deed, the account agreements, the insurance and retirement beneficiary forms, and any trust documents.

The Probate Court Appoints An Administrator

A will usually names an executor to handle the estate. Without a will, the Probate Court appoints an administrator instead.

The administrator identifies and values estate property, addresses valid bills and expenses, files required court documents, and distributes what remains. The process is supervised by the Probate Court. According to the Connecticut Probate Courts' Administration of Decedents' Estates guide, the court generally requires an executor or administrator to provide a probate bond and sets the amount.

The court's choice may be perfectly sensible. It is still a choice you did not make. Naming the person you trust to handle the work can prevent a disagreement from becoming the estate's first major problem.

Parents Can Put A Guardian Choice In Writing

Connecticut law also lets a parent appoint a guardian or coguardians for an unmarried minor child by will or another signed writing attested by at least two witnesses. Section 45a-596 explains when that appointment takes effect and keeps the guardianship under Probate Court control.

If one parent survives, Connecticut law generally makes that parent the child's sole guardian. If no parent or guardian remains and the parents made no effective written appointment, guardianship does not automatically pass to a grandparent, aunt, uncle, or other relative. An eligible person must petition the Probate Court, and the court appoints a guardian after considering the child's needs, relationships, wishes when applicable, and best interests.

The written choice tells the court whom the parent selected and avoids leaving the family to reconstruct the parent's wishes after a death. The statute also provides procedures for competing instruments and, in some circumstances, for a child older than twelve to seek a substitution.

A guardian decision deserves more thought than filling in a name. Parents should consider the proposed guardian's relationship with the child, health, location, household, and ability to take on the responsibility. They should also speak with the person before making the appointment.

Check The Plan Connecticut Would Use

Start with three questions:

1. Who would receive the probate estate under Connecticut's current intestacy statutes?
2. Which assets would pass outside probate, and do the deeds and beneficiary forms still reflect your wishes?
3. Who would handle the estate and care for minor children if you could not make those decisions later?

Recheck those answers after a marriage, divorce, birth, death, home purchase, or major change in an account. A will that once fit the family may no longer work with the rest of the plan.

If you live in Greater New Haven and are unsure what Connecticut's default rules would do with your estate, contact LoRicco Law. As part of our probate and estate work, we can review your family structure, the property that may be part of the probate estate, and the documents that already control particular assets.