{"id":1415,"date":"2023-08-25T09:54:59","date_gmt":"2023-08-25T09:54:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buyerslaw.com\/?p=1415"},"modified":"2023-08-25T09:56:39","modified_gmt":"2023-08-25T09:56:39","slug":"why-do-i-need-a-will-wont-everything-go-to-my-spouse-when-i-die","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buyerslaw.com\/?p=1415","title":{"rendered":"Why Do I Need a Will? Won\u2019t Everything Go To My Spouse When I Die?"},"content":{"rendered":"

If\u00a0you die without a valid will in Michigan,\u00a0the laws of intestacy will determine who will\u00a0receive your\u00a0probate assets\u00a0<\/a>.\u00a0 \u00a0If you have no surviving parents and no surviving children\/descendants, your spouse will indeed receive all of your probate assets after your creditors\u00a0and costs of probate administration are paid.\u00a0 If\u00a0you fit in this category and this is\u00a0precisely how you want your probate assets to\u00a0be distributed\u00a0upon your death, then your work is done!<\/p>\n

If however you are married and have surviving parents and\/or surviving children when you die without a will,\u00a0intestacy\u00a0gets more complicated.\u00a0\u00a0 A simplified summary of\u00a0the laws of intestacy follows:<\/p>\n

If you leave no descendants but leave a surviving parent,\u00a0your surviving spouse is entitled to the first $221,000 (this is the\u00a02015 amount which is\u00a0adjusted annually for inflation) of your estate. Your spouse then receives three-quarters of the balance and your surviving parent(s) receive one-quarter.<\/p>\n

If you die leaving children and any of your children are also your surviving spouse\u2019s children, then your spouse is entitled to receive the first $221,000 of your estate and shares the balance equally with your children.<\/p>\n

If you die leaving children and none of your children are also children of your surviving spouse (they are\u00a0your surviving spouse\u2019s stepchildren), then\u00a0your surviving spouse is entitled to receive the first $148,000 (similarly adjusted annually for inflation) of your estate and shares the balance equally with your children.<\/p>\n

If you die with no surviving spouse, your entire probate\u00a0estate passes to the following individuals who survive you in this order:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Your descendants.<\/li>\n
  2. If you leave no surviving descendants, your parents.<\/li>\n
  3. If you leave no surviving descendants or parents, the descendants of your parents, i.e., your brothers and sisters, then nieces and nephews.<\/li>\n
  4. If there are none of the above, half of your estate goes to your maternal grandparents or their descendants and half goes to your paternal grandparents or their descendants. If there is no one to take on one side of the family, the entire estate passes to the relatives on the other side.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    If this is not your preferred plan of distribution for your probate assets, make sure you have a valid will or trust in place before you die! Keep in mind as well that any assets that pass outside of probate such as joint assets, beneficiary designations and pay-on-death designations will go to the other joint owner or beneficiary automatically upon your death.\u00a0 This\u00a0may complicate or change the intestate distribution plan outlined above.<\/p>\n

    If all of this seems unduly complicated,\u00a0you are correct.\u00a0 The legislature and courts\u00a0have amended and refined the laws of intestacy over the years to address the varied\u00a0situations that can\u00a0arise when someone dies without\u00a0having\u00a0prepared\u00a0a\u00a0Will or Trust.\u00a0\u00a0You can save your loved ones the trouble of navigating\u00a0this maze of intestacy laws\u00a0by planning ahead and putting your own estate plan in\u00a0place before its too late!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    If\u00a0you die without a valid will in Michigan,\u00a0the laws of intestacy will determine who will\u00a0receive your\u00a0probate assets\u00a0.\u00a0 \u00a0If you have<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1418,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buyers-law"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buyerslaw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buyerslaw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buyerslaw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buyerslaw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buyerslaw.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1415"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/buyerslaw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1415\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1417,"href":"https:\/\/buyerslaw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1415\/revisions\/1417"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buyerslaw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buyerslaw.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buyerslaw.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buyerslaw.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}