Who Inherits If You Die Without a Will in Pennsylvania

Surviving spouse: the entire estate if the decedent left no descendants and no parent; the first $30,000 plus one-half of the rest if there are no descendants but a parent survives, or if all of the decedent's descendants are also descendants of the surviving spouse; one-half of the estate if any of the decedent's descendants are not the surviving spouse's descendants. Anything the spouse does not take (or everything, if there is no spouse) passes to descendants; if none, to parents; if none, to brothers and sisters and their descendants; if none, to grandparents (half to each side) and their children and grandchildren; if none, to aunts and uncles and their children and grandchildren. If there are no such relatives, the estate passes to an endowed community fund held by a qualifying community foundation in the decedent's municipality, then school district, then county, and only if none exists to the Commonwealth.

A surviving spouse of a person who died domiciled in Pennsylvania may elect to take one-third of certain property instead of what the will provides. The property counted includes property passing by will or intestacy, property the decedent could revoke or use at death, certain joint property with survivorship, certain annuities, and gifts made during the marriage within one year of death to the extent they exceed $3,000 per recipient; life insurance and employer retirement plans are generally excluded. The election must be a signed writing filed with the clerk of the orphans' court division in the county of domicile within six months after death or six months after probate, whichever is later (the court may extend this on a timely application). Pennsylvania is not a community property state.

Pennsylvania has no general small estate affidavit. Instead, certain assets may be paid directly to family without letters: an employer may pay up to $10,000 in wages or employee benefits; a bank or credit union must pay deposits of up to $20,000 per institution to the spouse, a child, a parent or a sibling (in that order of preference) when a receipted funeral bill or a funeral director's affidavit is presented; a facility may pay up to $10,000 from a medical-assistance patient's care account; an insurer may pay up to $11,000 owed to the estate after 60 days; and the State Treasurer may release unclaimed property of $20,000 or less to the spouse or close relatives on a sworn affidavit if no personal representative has been appointed (or five years have passed since appointment). Real estate cannot pass this way.