When you die without a will in Florida, you are subject to the state’s intestacy laws. If you are subject to Florida’s intestacy laws, the order of priority that your heirs have to your probate assets are determined by statute. If you die without any living descendants but leave behind a surviving spouse, your surviving spouse has a legal right to receive your entire probate estate.
Under Florida law, living descendants include your children, their children (your grandchildren) and descendants of their children. If you die with a surviving spouse and surviving descendants, their inheritances depend on whether your living descendants are related to you and your surviving spouse. Your surviving spouse can receive your entire estate if this is the case, and your surviving spouse has no other surviving descendants. The remaining intestacy rules depend on whether your surviving spouse has issue of her own and whether you leave behind surviving children who are not your surviving spouse’s children. If you were unmarried at the time of your death, your surviving parents receive your probate estate if you leave behind no living descendants. If children and grandchildren survive you, they will receive your assets in shares determined by Florida’s intestacy laws. If you are unmarried, and your parents predeceased you, your siblings receive your probate estate in shares determined by Florida law.
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