# Intestate Succession: Definition and How It Works in California

> Intestate succession is the set of rules California uses to distribute an estate when someone dies without a valid will.

Source: https://ridleylawoffices.com/estate-planning-glossary-california/intestate-succession/

By Eric Ridley, attorney, Ridley Law. Updated September 2026.

**Intestate succession** is the set of rules California uses to distribute a person’s estate when they die without a valid will, based on how closely surviving relatives are related to them.

## How it works in California

Under Prob. Code, § 6401, a surviving spouse takes the entire intestate estate if the decedent left no surviving issue, parent, sibling, or issue of a deceased sibling. Prob. Code, § 6402 sets out how the estate divides among children, parents, siblings, and more distant relatives when a spouse either doesn’t survive or has to share with closer relatives. For a full walk-through of what happens with no will at all, see [what happens if you die without a will in California](https://ridleylawoffices.com/dying-without-a-will-california/).

The rules work through a fixed order of relatives. Children come before parents, parents come before siblings, and so on, with the estate going to the closest surviving category before anything reaches a more distant relative. Adopted children generally inherit the same as biological children; stepchildren generally don’t inherit unless a legal adoption took place.

Intestate succession only applies to property that a will or trust doesn’t already cover. A person can die with no will and still avoid intestate succession entirely if everything they owned was already titled in a living trust or passed by beneficiary designation.

## Why it matters

For example, a woman dies without a will, survived by her husband and two adult children from an earlier marriage. Her husband takes all of the community property under Prob. Code, § 6401, but because she has surviving children, he shares her separate property with them under the same section. A family that assumes a surviving spouse always inherits the whole estate can be surprised by how the shares actually split. For more on how relatives are identified and ranked, see [CA next of kin: who is it, inheritance rights](https://ridleylawoffices.com/ca-next-of-kin-laws/).

## Common mistakes

Assuming a surviving spouse automatically receives the entire estate regardless of who else survives. Overlooking a stepchild’s lack of inheritance rights absent a formal adoption. Waiting to plan because intestate succession feels like a fallback that probably won’t matter, when in practice it can produce a result no one in the family actually wanted.

## Related terms

- [Disclaimer](https://ridleylawoffices.com/estate-planning-glossary-california/disclaimer-inheritance/): a way an heir can refuse an intestate share so it passes to the next person in line.
- [Heir](https://ridleylawoffices.com/estate-planning-glossary-california/heir/): the person intestate succession identifies and ranks.
- [Letters of administration](https://ridleylawoffices.com/estate-planning-glossary-california/letters-of-administration/): the court order appointing someone to run an intestate estate.
- [Per capita](https://ridleylawoffices.com/estate-planning-glossary-california/per-capita/): one method for dividing a share among relatives at the same generation.
- [Per stirpes](https://ridleylawoffices.com/estate-planning-glossary-california/per-stirpes/): a method that divides a share by family branch; California’s intestacy rules use a generation-based method instead.
- [Pretermitted heir](https://ridleylawoffices.com/estate-planning-glossary-california/pretermitted-heir/): a child who receives an intestate-style share even though a will existed, because the will left them out by accident.
- [Will](https://ridleylawoffices.com/estate-planning-glossary-california/will/): the document that, if valid, takes an estate out of intestate succession entirely.

Part of the [California estate planning glossary](https://ridleylawoffices.com/estate-planning-glossary-california/). For the full treatment, see [What Happens If You Die Without a Will in California](https://ridleylawoffices.com/dying-without-a-will-california/).