Who Inherits If You Die Without a Will in California? Interactive Answer

If you die without a will in California, state law, not your unwritten wishes, decides who inherits through a process called intestate succession, and the exact split turns on whether you are married, how many children survive you, and whether an asset is community or separate property (Prob. Code §§ 6401–6402).

Answer the questions below about your own family and property. It takes under a minute, nothing you enter is saved or sent anywhere, and at the end you will see the actual statutory split, not a guess.

How does California decide who inherits without a will?

California calls this intestate succession. It is a fixed statutory order, not a guess at what you would have wanted, and it treats community property and separate property differently (Prob. Code §§ 6401–6402). Community property is what you or your spouse earned or acquired during the marriage. Separate property is what either of you owned before marriage, or received individually by gift or inheritance, even during the marriage.

What happens to community property if I’m married and die without a will?

Your surviving spouse ends up with all of it: their own existing half, plus your half by inheritance (Prob. Code § 6401(a)). This is where the common belief that “the spouse gets everything” comes from, and for community property it is correct. It is only the separate property side where the math changes depending on who else survives you.

What happens to separate property if I’m married and die without a will?

Your spouse’s share of your separate property depends on who else survives you (Prob. Code § 6401(c)): all of it if you leave no children, parents, or siblings; one-half if you leave one child (or the issue of one deceased child), or no children but a surviving parent or sibling line; and one-third if you leave two or more children, or one child plus the issue of a deceased child, or the issue of two or more deceased children. Whatever the spouse does not take passes to the same people in the same order who would take if you were unmarried (Prob. Code § 6402).

Worked example: you are married with two children and a $500,000 rental property you owned before the marriage. The rental is separate property, so under the two-or-more-children tier your spouse takes one-third, $166,667, and your two children split the remaining two-thirds, $333,333, between them (Prob. Code § 6401(c)). Change it to one child instead of two, and the spouse and that child would each take one-half.

What if I’m not married when I die without a will?

With no surviving spouse, your entire estate follows the same § 6402 order: first to your children (and the issue of any child who died before you, by representation); if none, to your parents; if none, to your parents’ issue, meaning your siblings and their children; then outward to grandparents and their issue, the issue of a spouse who predeceased you in an earlier marriage, next of kin, and the parents of a predeceased spouse or their issue (Prob. Code § 6402). If every one of those lines is empty, and only then, the estate escheats to the State of California.

What’s the difference between community and separate property?

Community property is anything either spouse earned or acquired during the marriage: wages, a house bought together, a retirement account funded during the marriage. Separate property is anything owned before the marriage, or received individually by gift or inheritance at any point, even mid-marriage, as long as it was not commingled into joint ownership. Which bucket an asset falls into decides which statute and which percentage governs it, which is exactly why the tool above asks the question before showing you a result.

What’s the one thing to remember about dying without a will?

No will doesn’t mean no plan. It means Sacramento’s plan runs instead of yours, and Sacramento’s plan was not written with your family in mind.

What does this tool leave out?

This is an educational simplification, not a substitute for reading your own facts with an attorney. It does not calculate exact per-stirpes percentages beyond one generation of representation. It does not apply Prob. Code § 6402.5, which can send a predeceased spouse’s attributable property back to that spouse’s own family. It ignores advancements, meaning lifetime gifts that can count against an heir’s share, and it does not apply the omitted-spouse or omitted-child protections that can override an existing will. For the full picture, including these exceptions, read Who Inherits If You Die Without a Will in California.

A will or a funded living trust is the only way to put your own wishes in place of this statute, for a stepchild you never adopted, an unmarried partner, a friend, or a charity, none of whom inherit anything under intestacy no matter how close the relationship. Dying intestate also does not skip probate; an intestate estate above the small-estate threshold still goes through the same court process and the same statutory fees either way. If you already know your plan needs work, see what a plan actually costs on the fees page, or talk to a wills attorney about putting something in writing instead of leaving this to the legislature.

Talk to Eric

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Written by Eric D. Ridley. Estate Planning Attorney at Ridley Law, serving Ventura County since 2010. Learn more about Eric →