Dying Without a Will in Pennsylvania
There is a common belief that if you are married, your spouse simply gets everything. In Pennsylvania, that is usually false - and the gap between the assumption and the statute is where families come apart.
What intestacy means
If you die without a valid will, you die intestate. Pennsylvania then applies a fixed statutory formula - 20 Pa.C.S. §§ 2102 and 2103 - to decide who inherits. The formula does not know anything about your intentions, your relationships, or who cared for you at the end. It knows legal categories only.
The court also appoints an administrator rather than honouring your choice of executor, and a judge decides who raises your minor children rather than the guardian you would have nominated.
The surviving spouse's share
This is the part that surprises people. Under § 2102, the spouse's share depends on who else survives you:
| Who else survives | Surviving spouse receives |
|---|---|
| No descendants, no parents | The entire intestate estate |
| No descendants, but a surviving parent or parents | First $30,000 + one-half of the balance |
| Descendants, all of whom are also the spouse's descendants | First $30,000 + one-half of the balance |
| Descendants, one or more of whom are not the spouse's | One-half of the estate - no $30,000 |
Whatever the spouse does not take passes to the descendants (or, in the second row, to the parents).
A childless married couple in their thirties is the classic trap. If one dies intestate with a living parent, the surviving spouse does not inherit the whole estate - the spouse takes $30,000 plus half the rest, and the deceased's parents take the other half. On a $400,000 estate that hands $185,000 to the in-laws. A one-page will prevents it.
A worked example
Estate of $530,000. Spouse survives, plus two children who are also the spouse's children.
- Spouse: $30,000 + half of the remaining $500,000 = $280,000
- Each child: $125,000
If instead one of those children is from the decedent's first marriage, the $30,000 preference disappears:
- Spouse: half of $530,000 = $265,000
- Each child: $132,500
Blended families: the hard case
Intestacy is at its most damaging in blended families. Consider a second marriage where the family home was bought by one spouse before the marriage and is titled in that spouse's sole name.
If that spouse dies intestate leaving children from the first marriage, the surviving spouse takes half the estate and the children take half - as co-owners of the house. The surviving spouse now shares the roof over their head with adult stepchildren who may want to sell. Pennsylvania offers no mechanism to prevent that outcome; only a will or trust can.
Note also that stepchildren inherit nothing under intestacy unless legally adopted, however long you raised them.
If there is no spouse
Section 2103 sets the order. The estate passes to the first category with a living member:
- Descendants - children, then grandchildren, per stirpes.
- Parents, equally, or all to the survivor.
- Siblings and their descendants.
- Grandparents - half to the paternal side, half to the maternal side, passing down to their descendants.
- Aunts, uncles, and their children and grandchildren.
- If nobody qualifies, the estate escheats to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Adopted children inherit fully from their adoptive family. Children born outside marriage inherit from their mother, and from their father where paternity is established as the statute requires.
An unmarried partner. A close friend. A godchild. A charity you supported for decades. A caregiver. None of them receive anything under Pennsylvania intestacy, no matter how central they were to your life. If you want any of them to inherit, a will is the only route.
What intestacy never touches
Intestacy governs only your probate estate. These pass outside it regardless of whether you had a will:
- Retirement accounts and life insurance with a named beneficiary
- Payable-on-death and transfer-on-death accounts
- Property held jointly with right of survivorship
- Assets already titled in a living trust
This cuts both ways: a stale beneficiary designation naming an ex-spouse will still be honoured. Reviewing those forms is as important as writing the will.
The practical consequences
- A court picks your administrator. Usually the surviving spouse or an adult child - and if several want the role, the disagreement is settled in court.
- A bond is often required, an expense a will can waive.
- A judge decides guardianship of minor children, without your nomination as guidance.
- Minors inherit outright at 18. A guardian may need to be appointed for the funds until then, with court supervision, and the whole sum is handed over on the eighteenth birthday.
- Inheritance tax still applies, at rates driven by relationship. Siblings inheriting under intestacy pay 12%, nieces and nephews 15%. See our inheritance tax guide.
- Administration takes longer and costs more, because everything that a will would have specified must instead be established to the court's satisfaction.
Common questions
Does my spouse automatically get the house?
Not through intestacy. If the house is jointly owned with right of survivorship, it passes to your spouse outside the estate. If it is in your sole name, it forms part of the intestate estate and is divided by the formula above - potentially leaving your spouse co-owning it with your children.
Is $30,000 the current figure?
Yes - $30,000 is the spousal preference set by 20 Pa.C.S. § 2102. It has not been indexed to inflation, which is precisely why it protects far less than people expect.
Can my family just agree to divide things differently?
Adult beneficiaries can sometimes redistribute their own shares by agreement or disclaimer, but this needs care, has tax consequences, and cannot bind minors or unborn beneficiaries. It is a repair, not a plan.
What if my will is found to be invalid?
The estate is treated as intestate, and this formula applies. That is why proper execution - signing at the end, with a self-proving affidavit - matters as much as the drafting.
Decide it yourself instead
A Pennsylvania will takes the statute out of the driver's seat: your executor, your guardian, your split. Airlooms walks you through it in plain English.