Inheritance Without a Will Under Michigan's New EPIC Law

If a person dies without a will, or if there is a serious problem with the person's will, the person, or "decedent", has died "intestate". Property that normally would be distributed pursuant to the decedent's will (his or her "estate", or sometimes, his or her "probate estate"), will be distributed instead by the law of "intestate succession". If a problem with the person's will only affects distribution of part of the person's probate estate, then the situation is called a "partial intestacy". The Michigan legislature has modified how such property will be distributed in court proceedings. Following are explanations and illustrations of some of the many possible specific cases.

Case #1: The decedent is survived by his or her spouse. The decedent is survived by no descendant of his or her own. The decedent is not survived by his or her parents, either. There may or may not be surviving descendants of decedent's parents (brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews) or grandparents.
Result #1: The spouse inherits the entire estate. Nieces and nephews, and brothers and sisters, etc., do not inherit. (This is the case for more distant relatives now whenever there is a surviving spouse.)

Case #2: The decedent is survived by his or her spouse. The decedent is survived by descendants of his or her own. Some or all of the decedent's surviving descendants are also descendants of the surviving spouse. There may or may not be descendants of the surviving spouse who are not the decedent's.
Result #2: The spouse inherits the first $150,000, plus ½ of the balance of the intestate estate. The decedent's descendants inherit the rest of the intestate estate.

Case #3: The decedent is survived by his or her spouse. The decedent is survived by no descendant of his or her own. The surviving spouse may or may not have descendants who are not the decedent's. The decedent is survived by a parent or both parents.
Result #3: The spouse inherits the first $150,000, plus 3/4 of the balance of the intestate estate. The rest passes to the decedent's surviving parents equally, or to the surviving parent. Any descendants of the surviving spouse who are not the decedent's, do not inherit.

Case #4: The decedent is survived by his or her spouse. The decedent is survived by descendants, none of which are descendants of the surviving spouse. The spouse may or may not have descendants who are not the decedent's.
Result #4: The spouse inherits the first $100,000, plus 1/2 of any balance of the intestate estate. The rest passes to the decedent's descendants, by representation. Any descendants of the surviving spouse who are not the decedent's, do not inherit.

Case #5: The decedent is not survived by a spouse, but is survived by descendants.
Result #5: The decedent's descendants inherit, by representation.

Case #6: The decedent is not survived by a spouse, nor by descendants. The decedent is survived by one or both parents.
Result #6: The estate passes to the decedent's parents equally, or to the surviving parent.

Case #7: The decedent is not survived by a spouse, by a descendant, nor by a parent.
Result #7: The estate passes to the descendants of decedent's parents or of either of them, by representation (brothers, sisters, half-brothers and half-sisters, or to their surviving children --- decedent's nieces and nephews --- etc.).

Roughly Simplified Case #8: The decedent is not survived by a spouse, by a descendant, by a parent, nor by a descendant of a parent. The decedent is survived by one or more grandparents or by one or more descendants of a grandparent.
Roughly Simplified Result #8: 1/2 to the paternal side, and the other 1/2 to the maternal side, unless there are no surviving relatives on one side, in which case the estate passes to the side with surviving relatives.

Illustration #9: EPIC diverges from prior law in the distribution to subsequent generations. The term "by representation", as used in EPIC, means each person without a living parent-heir of the decedent (or other living ancestor/blood relative of decedent who might inherit instead) gets a share that is equal to that of every other such person in the same generation. Under Revision

Case #10: If there is no taker under any of the cases, above, then the intestate estate passes to the State of Michigan. With today's life expectancies, this result (called an "escheat") should be quite rare, regardless of whether the decedent wrote a will. One frequent misconception is the notion that, if someone dies without a will, the state takes all. It is possible that the state may recover a portion or all of an estate because of Medicaid expenditures made by the state on the decedent's behalf, or because the decedent otherwise owed money to the state. Such debts are a claim on the estate, and must be paid before any distribution to heirs, whether the pursuant to a will or to intestate succession. Therefore, having a will would not prevent the state from recovering what is owed. If there is a likelihood that your heir will be or include the State, you might include a charity as an "ultimate taker" under your will.