Estate Planning · Practical Legal Guidance
Most people who die without a will did not intend to die without one. They intended to get around to it. The result is that Pennsylvania’s intestate succession law makes the decisions that the deceased person never made — distributing assets according to a fixed formula that has no knowledge of what the person actually wanted, who they were close to, or what their family situation actually looked like. The formula is not wrong. It is just not theirs.
Dying without a will does not mean your assets go to the state. It means they go where Pennsylvania law sends them, which is rarely where the person would have chosen if they had thought about it.
Pennsylvania’s intestate succession law distributes assets in a fixed order based on family relationships. That order reflects a general pattern of family structure, not the specific circumstances of any individual family.
If you are administering an estate where there was no will, or if you want to understand what would happen to your assets under Pennsylvania law, call 412-351-4422 or schedule a consultation. Pennsylvania intestate succession is governed by 20 Pa.C.S. § 2101 et seq.
The intestate succession formula is fixed. It does not bend for estrangement, caregiving, or the relationships that actually mattered.
Pennsylvania’s intestate succession law at 20 Pa.C.S. § 2101 et seq. distributes a deceased person’s probate estate in a specific order. If the deceased was married with children, the surviving spouse receives the first $30,000 plus one-half of the remaining estate. The children divide the other half. If the deceased was married with no children, the surviving spouse receives everything. If the deceased was unmarried with children, the children divide the entire estate equally. If there are no spouse and no children, the estate passes to parents, then siblings, then more distant relatives in a fixed order.
The formula does not know that the deceased was estranged from one of their children and had not spoken to them in twenty years. It does not know that the person who provided years of care was a close friend, not a family member, and receives nothing. It does not know that the deceased owned a business with a partner and had always intended their share to pass to the surviving partner rather than to family members who have no involvement in the business. It does not know that the deceased and their spouse had agreed that certain assets would go to children from a prior marriage. It distributes assets according to a formula. The formula is blind to the specifics. These gaps between what intestate succession produces and what the family expected are the foundation for most estate disputes. See what actually causes families to fight after a death.
The surviving spouse’s share under intestate succession — the first $30,000 plus half the remaining estate — is often less than the spouse would have received under a carefully drafted will. A married couple that assumes the surviving spouse will receive everything if there is no will is wrong when there are children from the marriage or from a prior relationship. The child who was supposed to receive the bulk of the estate because the other children were already financially secure receives the same share as their siblings under the formula. The partner who was not legally married receives nothing regardless of the length or depth of the relationship.
Pennsylvania does not recognize common law marriage formed after 2005. An unmarried partner has no inheritance rights under intestate succession regardless of the length or nature of the relationship.
Pennsylvania abolished common law marriage for relationships formed after January 1, 2005. A couple that has lived together for twenty years, built a life together, and considered themselves married in every practical sense but never formalized the relationship has no legal marriage under Pennsylvania law if the relationship began after 2004. When one partner dies without a will, the surviving partner receives nothing from the intestate estate. The assets pass to the deceased’s children, parents, or other relatives according to the formula. The person the deceased would have chosen to receive everything receives nothing.
This outcome surprises families and partners every year. The assumption that a long-term relationship creates inheritance rights is widespread and wrong. The legal marriage creates those rights. The committed relationship, however long and however genuine, does not. A will — or a beneficiary designation that names the partner on financial accounts — is the only mechanism that produces the outcome the couple intended.
The surviving partner who is left out of an intestate estate is not without any recourse in every situation. A claim for unjust enrichment, a constructive trust theory based on contributions to assets the deceased owned, or a contract claim based on an express agreement to share assets may be available in specific circumstances. These claims are difficult to establish, expensive to litigate, and uncertain in outcome. They are the remedies available when the planning was not done. They are not substitutes for the planning. For what actually goes wrong with estate plans that were never maintained, see what actually goes wrong with an estate plan.
Without a will, Pennsylvania law determines who administers the estate. The person the deceased would have chosen may not be the person the law sends.
A will names an executor. Without a will, the Register of Wills grants letters of administration to an interested party according to a priority order established by Pennsylvania law. The surviving spouse has first priority. Children have second priority. If neither is available or willing, other relatives follow in a fixed order. The person who actually knew the deceased’s affairs, understood their wishes, and is best positioned to administer the estate may not be the person the law selects.
Multiple parties at the same priority level can each petition for administration, producing a contested proceeding over who will serve as administrator. Three children who cannot agree on who should administer the estate have created an Orphans Court dispute before the administration has even begun. The contest over who will serve as administrator delays the administration, costs money, and produces hard feelings that will persist through the entire process. For what happens to families navigating probate without preparation, see what Pittsburgh families learn too late about probate.
The administrator’s authority is the same as an executor’s — to collect assets, pay debts and taxes, and distribute what remains according to the intestate formula. But an administrator who was not the deceased’s choice, who is serving because they had priority under the statute rather than because they were selected by the person who knew them best, brings a different dynamic to the administration than an executor who was specifically chosen and trusted with the role.
Pennsylvania law does not allow minors to receive substantial assets directly. Without a will that creates a trust, a court proceeding is required to manage inherited assets until the child reaches eighteen.
When a parent dies intestate leaving minor children, those children are entitled to their intestate share of the estate. But Pennsylvania law does not permit minors to receive substantial assets outright. A guardian of the property must be appointed by the Orphans Court to manage the child’s inheritance until they reach adulthood. The guardian appointment requires a court proceeding, ongoing court supervision, and periodic accountings to the court throughout the guardianship period.
The guardianship of property mechanism is functional but cumbersome. The assets are managed by the court-supervised guardian according to conservative investment standards that may not reflect what the parent would have wanted. The child receives the assets outright at eighteen — an age at which many young people are not equipped to manage a significant inheritance responsibly. A will that creates a testamentary trust for minor children can specify the age at which assets are distributed, the investment strategy during the trust period, and the trustee who will manage the funds. Without the will, the court’s default mechanism applies.
Young parents are statistically the least likely to have wills. They are also the group for whom the absence of a will has the most significant consequences — not just for asset distribution but for the guardianship of the children themselves. A will nominates a guardian for minor children. Without a will, the court appoints a guardian from among those who petition, applying the best interests of the child standard without the guidance of a parent’s expressed preference. The nomination in the will is not binding on the court, but it is the strongest evidence of the parent’s wishes available.
A business interest that passes through intestate succession passes to people who may have no interest in the business and no ability to run it.
A business owner who dies without a will leaves their ownership interest to pass through intestate succession to their heirs. Those heirs become co-owners of a business they may know nothing about, with a surviving business partner who may not have wanted them involved, and with no mechanism for determining how the interest will be valued or transferred. The business that the owner spent decades building becomes the subject of a dispute between the heirs and the surviving partner before the estate is even administered.
A buy-sell agreement in the business’s operating or shareholder agreement can address this problem directly by requiring the surviving owners to purchase the deceased’s interest at a predetermined or determinable price. But a buy-sell agreement that exists in the business documents does not substitute for a will that coordinates with it. A will that leaves the business interest to the surviving partner, or to a specific family member who will continue the business, works in concert with the buy-sell agreement to produce the outcome the owner intended. Without the will, the buy-sell agreement governs the mechanics of the transfer but the estate plan — or absence of one — determines who receives the proceeds.
Pittsburgh’s family business community — construction companies, real estate holding companies, professional practices, retail businesses built over generations — produces this scenario with enough frequency that it has its own familiar shape. The business owner who was always going to get around to the estate plan. The surviving family members who now own an interest in a business they cannot run. The surviving business partner who needs the situation resolved before the business suffers. The urgency that proper planning would have entirely eliminated.
Most people know they need a will. Most people have not made one. The gap between knowing and doing is where intestate succession happens.
A basic will for a person with a straightforward situation — a spouse, children, clear intentions about who should receive what — takes a single appointment with an attorney. The document is not complicated. The process is not expensive relative to what it prevents. The reasons people defer it are not legal obstacles. They are the ordinary human reluctance to think about dying, the assumption that there will be time later, and the mistaken belief that the absence of a will is not a decision with consequences.
It is a decision with consequences. The consequences are specific: assets distributed according to a formula rather than intentions, an administrator chosen by statute rather than by the deceased, minor children managed by court-supervised guardianship rather than a trusted trustee, and a family that must navigate the gap between what was intended and what the law provides. Those consequences fall on the people who are left, not on the person who deferred the planning.
The most useful thing most people can do for their families is make a will, name an executor they trust, update their beneficiary designations, and tell someone where the documents are. None of that is complicated. All of it matters more than most people realize until it is too late to do it.
Pennsylvania intestate succession is governed by 20 Pa.C.S. § 2101 et seq. Pennsylvania abolished common law marriage for relationships formed after January 1, 2005 under 23 Pa.C.S. § 1103. Proceedings are administered through the Allegheny County Register of Wills and Orphans Court.
Your probate assets are distributed according to Pennsylvania’s intestate succession law at 20 Pa.C.S. § 2101 et seq. If you are married with children, your spouse receives the first $30,000 plus one-half of the remaining estate, and your children divide the other half equally. If you are married with no children, your spouse receives everything. If you are unmarried with children, your children divide the estate equally. If you have no spouse and no children, your estate passes to your parents, then siblings, then more distant relatives. Assets with beneficiary designations pass directly to the named beneficiary regardless of these rules.
No, unless you were legally married. Pennsylvania does not recognize common law marriage formed after January 1, 2005. An unmarried partner has no inheritance rights under intestate succession regardless of the length or nature of the relationship. Your assets will pass to your legal relatives according to the intestate succession formula. The only way to ensure your partner receives your assets is through a will, a beneficiary designation naming them on financial accounts, or joint ownership with survivorship rights.
The Register of Wills grants letters of administration to an interested party according to a statutory priority order. The surviving spouse has first priority, followed by children, then other relatives. Multiple parties at the same priority level can each petition for administration, which can produce a contested proceeding before the administration has even begun. Without a will naming an executor, the person who actually manages the estate may not be the person the deceased would have chosen.
Minor children cannot receive substantial assets directly under Pennsylvania law. The Orphans Court must appoint a guardian of the property to manage the inheritance until the child reaches eighteen. The guardianship requires ongoing court supervision and periodic accountings. The child receives the assets outright at eighteen regardless of their maturity or readiness. A will that creates a testamentary trust for minor children allows the parent to specify the trustee, the investment approach, and the age or conditions under which assets are distributed — none of which is available under the court’s default guardianship mechanism.
Not necessarily. A will requires testamentary capacity — the ability to understand the nature of a will, the extent of your assets, and who your natural heirs are. Many people retain testamentary capacity well into serious illness or advanced age. The question is not age or illness but mental capacity at the time of signing. A person who has capacity today should make a will today rather than waiting until capacity is uncertain. An attorney can assess whether capacity is present and document the circumstances of the signing to reduce the risk of a later challenge.
Lebovitz & Lebovitz, P.A. · Pittsburgh Estate Planning Attorneys Since 1933. Serving Allegheny County and southwestern Pennsylvania.
This page is part of our Estate Planning and Probate practice. For wills in Pennsylvania, see wills in Pennsylvania. For intestate succession in Pennsylvania, see intestate succession in Pennsylvania. For what families learn too late about probate, see what Pittsburgh families learn too late about probate. For the legal checklist most families never complete, see the legal checklist most people never complete.
Estate Planning · Pittsburgh
Pennsylvania’s intestate succession law is not wrong. It just does not know what you wanted. A will takes one appointment to fix that. Call 412-351-4422 or schedule a consultation with Lebovitz & Lebovitz, P.A.
Dying without a will does not mean your assets go to the state. It means they go where Pennsylvania law sends them. The formula has no knowledge of who you were close to, what your family situation actually looked like, or what you would have chosen. Most people know they need a will. The gap between knowing and doing is where intestate succession happens.
