If you die without a valid will in New Jersey, you do not get to decide who inherits your property or who will administer your estate. Instead, New Jersey’s intestacy laws determine who receives your probate estate and who has the legal authority to administer it. While these laws provide a default plan for distributing your property, they may not reflect your wishes or your personal circumstances.
What Does It Mean to Die Without a Will?
When someone dies without a valid will, they are said to have died intestate. That simply means they did not leave legally enforceable instructions explaining who should inherit their property.
Under N.J.S.A. 3B:5-2, property not disposed of by a valid will passes under New Jersey’s intestacy laws. However, these rules apply only to assets that become part of your probate estate. Assets owned individually without a valid beneficiary designation, trust arrangement, survivorship provision, or other non-probate transfer mechanism become part of the probate estate. Assets with valid beneficiary designations—such as life insurance proceeds, retirement accounts, and payable-on-death accounts—as well as jointly owned property with rights of survivorship, generally transfer directly to the named beneficiary or surviving owner outside of probate.
Who Inherits If You Die Without a Will?
New Jersey law establishes a fixed hierarchy to determine who receives your probate estate. Depending on who survives you, your probate estate may pass to a spouse, civil union partner, domestic partner, descendants, parents, siblings, or more distant relatives.
Unlike a will, these statutory rules do not consider your personal relationships or individual wishes. They cannot account for informal promises, long-term unmarried relationships, or your desire to leave property to friends or charities.
Does Your Spouse Automatically Inherit Everything?
Many people assume the answer is yes. In reality, whether a surviving spouse or partner inherits—and how much—depends on the decedent’s family circumstances and whether the survivor legally qualifies as a surviving spouse, civil union partner, or domestic partner under New Jersey law. Typically, your spouse inherits everything if you leave no surviving descendants or parents. The same is true when all of your surviving descendants are also descendants of your spouse and your spouse has no descendants from another relationship.
Things become more complicated if you have a blended family. If you have children from a previous relationship, your spouse shares the probate estate with those children. Likewise, if you leave no descendants but one or both of your parents survive you, your spouse shares the probate estate with your surviving parent or parents under N.J.S.A. 3B:5-3.
What Happens If You Are Not Married?
If you are not survived by a spouse, civil union partner, or domestic partner, your descendants are first in line to inherit your probate estate.
If one of your children dies before you but leaves children of their own, those grandchildren inherit the share their parent would have received. New Jersey calls this “inheritance by representation” under N.J.S.A. 3B:5-6.
If you leave no surviving descendants, your parents inherit your estate. If your parents are no longer living, your siblings are next in line, followed by their descendants if necessary. If none of these close relatives survive you, more distant relatives may inherit under N.J.S.A. 3B:5-4.
What If You Have an Unmarried Partner?
Many couples spend years building a life together without getting married. Unfortunately, living together does not, by itself, give your partner the right to inherit your probate estate.
Unless your partner is your legal spouse, civil union partner, or domestic partner, they generally will not inherit under the state’s intestacy laws. However, jointly owned property with rights of survivorship and assets with valid beneficiary designations may still pass directly to your partner outside probate. If you want your partner to inherit your probate estate, the safest way to accomplish that goal is through a properly drafted estate plan.
Who Is Responsible for Handling the Estate?
A will does more than decide who inherits your property. It also allows you to choose the person who will be responsible for settling your estate after your death. That person is known as the executor.
If you die without a will, someone must apply to the county surrogate for Letters of Administration to obtain the legal authority to act on behalf of your estate. Under N.J.S.A. 3B:10-2, New Jersey gives priority to a surviving spouse, civil union partner, or domestic partner, followed by the remaining heirs, although disagreements can require court involvement.
Once appointed, the administrator performs many of the same duties as an executor, including locating estate assets, paying valid debts and taxes, and distributing the remaining property to the people who inherit under New Jersey’s intestacy laws.
Can the State Take Your Property?
One of the most common myths about dying without a will is that the State automatically inherits everything you own. For almost every family, that simply is not true.
Before the State could ever receive property, New Jersey law requires your estate to be distributed to qualifying heirs under the intestacy statutes. The law recognizes a broad range of potential beneficiaries, including a surviving spouse, civil union partner, or domestic partner, descendants, parents, siblings and their descendants, grandparents and their descendants, and, in limited circumstances, stepchildren or their descendants.
For most people, the real concern is not that the State will receive their property. The greater concern is that New Jersey’s default inheritance rules may distribute the estate in a way they never intended.
Why Having a Will Matters
New Jersey’s intestacy laws provide a default estate plan for people who die without a will, but they cannot reflect your personal wishes or your family’s unique circumstances.
A properly drafted will allows you to decide who inherits your probate property, nominate the person you want to serve as executor, and create a plan tailored to your goals. Whether you want to provide for an unmarried partner, leave specific assets to particular beneficiaries, or make charitable gifts, a will gives you the ability to make those decisions yourself. It also provides your loved ones with clear instructions, helping reduce confusion, minimize disputes, and make the probate process more efficient during an already difficult time.
Cherry Hill New Jersey Will Attorney
If you die without a will in New Jersey, the law decides who inherits your probate estate and who will administer it. While New Jersey’s intestacy laws provide a default inheritance plan, they cannot account for your family’s unique circumstances, your personal relationships, or your wishes for the future.
Creating a will allows you to make those decisions yourself. Rather than relying on New Jersey’s default rules, you can choose who inherits your property, nominate the person you trust to administer your estate, and create a plan that reflects your goals and protects the people who matter most.
Don’t let New Jersey’s default intestacy laws decide the future of your estate. The best way to protect your loved ones and ensure your wishes are carried out is to create a will tailored to your goals. To schedule a consultation with an experienced Cherry Hill estate planning lawyer, call Fendrick Morgan at (856) 489-8388 or contact us online.
