Descendants are those who are the issue of an individual, such as children,
grandchildren, and their children, to the remotest degree. Descendants
are those in a descending line of birth from an individual, rather than
an ascending line, such as to the parents of the individual. Determining
who a person's descendants are is commonly necessary to determine who is
entitled to share in the estate of a person who dies without a will. State
statutes of descent and distribution, which vary by state, provide
for the surviving spouse and/or descendants to share in the estate of the
deceased. Parents of the deceased often do not share in the estate unless
there are no surviving descendants or spouse.
The following is an example of a state law governing intestate succession:
- Spouse takes the entire share if there are no surviving descendants
or parent. "Descendant" means, in relationship to an individual,
all of his or her descendants of all generations, with the relationship
of parent and child at each generation being determined by the definitions
of child and parent contained in EPIC.
- Spouse takes the first $150,000 plus 3/4 of the balance, if
there are no surviving descendants, but there is a surviving parent.
- Spouse takes the first $150,000, plus 1/2 of the balance, if
any of the decedent's descendants are also descendants of the spouse.
- Spouse takes the first $100,000, plus 1/2 of the balance, if
none of the decedent's surviving descendants are descendants of the spouse.
Any part of the intestate estate that does not pass to the decedent's
surviving spouse, or the entire intestate estate if there is no surviving
spouse, passes in the following order to the following individuals who
survive the decedent:
- The decedent's descendants by representation.
- If there is no surviving descendant, the decedent's parents
equally if both survive or to the surviving parent.
- If there is no surviving descendant or parent, the descendants
of the decedent's parents or of either of them by representation.
- If there is no surviving descendant, parent, or descendant
of a parent, but the decedent is survived by 1 or more grandparents or
descendants of grandparents, 1/2 of the estate passes to the decedent's
paternal grandparents equally if both survive, or to the surviving paternal
grandparent, or to the descendants of the decedent's paternal grandparents
or either of them if both are deceased, the descendants taking by representation;
and the other 1/2 passes to the decedent's maternal relatives in the same
manner. If there is no surviving grandparent or descendant of a grandparent
on either the paternal or the maternal side, the entire estate passes to
the decedent's relatives on the other side in the same matter as the 1/2.
- If there is no taker under the above provisions, the intestate
estate passes to the state."
Related Terms
Terms with 'Descendants'
