A family member dies. Someone starts looking through drawers and filing cabinets for a will, and there isn’t one. What happens next isn’t left to the family to decide. Florida law has already decided for them, through a statutory formula called intestate succession that distributes the estate according to a fixed hierarchy, regardless of what the deceased may have actually wanted.
That formula works reasonably well for some families. For blended families, unmarried partners, or anyone whose relationships don’t follow the nuclear-family template the statute was built around, it can produce results that feel deeply wrong. Understanding what the law actually says (not the outdated versions still circulating online) gives families a clearer picture of what they’re facing and what a plan would have changed. Attorney Adam Rauman and our team work with families across Largo and throughout Florida on exactly these situations, both administering intestate estates and helping people avoid leaving that burden to the people they love.
Florida Takes Over: What Intestate Succession Actually Means
Under Florida Statute § 732.101, any part of an estate not disposed of by a valid will passes to heirs under the state’s intestate succession rules. Inheritance rights vest at the moment of death, not when probate opens, so the distribution pattern is fixed from day one regardless of how long the court process takes.
One thing intestate succession doesn’t mean: the state takes the estate. That outcome, called escheat, happens only when no qualifying heir exists anywhere in the family tree. The real problem isn’t losing everything to the state. Distribution follows a rigid statutory formula that may not reflect what the decedent would have chosen.
Intestate succession also doesn’t reach every asset. Life insurance policies, retirement accounts, payable-on-death and transfer-on-death accounts, and jointly owned property with a right of survivorship all pass outside the probate estate entirely. If a deceased person held most of their wealth in a named-beneficiary IRA and a jointly owned home, intestate succession may govern very little of what they actually owned.
Who Inherits & How Much: The Florida Inheritance Hierarchy
Florida Statute § 732.102 governs the surviving spouse’s share and creates four distinct scenarios depending on family structure. One correction is worth stating plainly before outlining each: the claim that a surviving spouse receives “$60,000 plus half” under certain circumstances is based on statute language amended out in 2011. Under current Fla. Stat. § 732.102(1), if the decedent left no descendants, the surviving spouse inherits the entire estate, whether or not the decedent’s parents are still alive.
The four spousal-share scenarios under current Florida law:
- No descendants: The surviving spouse inherits the entire estate.
- Descendants shared with the spouse, and the spouse has no other children: The surviving spouse inherits the entire estate.
- All descendants are shared with the spouse, but the spouse also has children from another relationship: The surviving spouse inherits one-half of the estate.
- The decedent had descendants who aren’t the surviving spouse’s children: The surviving spouse inherits one-half of the estate.
When no surviving spouse exists, Florida Statute § 732.103 distributes the estate in priority order: first to the decedent’s descendants, then to parents, then to siblings and their descendants, then to more distant relatives. Each level inherits per stirpes, meaning a deceased heir’s share passes down to their own children in equal portions rather than disappearing. Escheat applies only after every branch of the family tree has been exhausted.
The Blended Family Problem: When the Formula Hurts
The intestate succession formula was designed around traditional family structures. For families whose lives don’t fit that mold, the results can be surprising and sometimes devastating.
Stepchildren Without Adoption
A stepchild who was never legally adopted by the decedent has no inheritance rights under Florida intestate law. It doesn’t matter how long the relationship lasted, how much financial support the decedent provided, or what the decedent intended. Without a will that names them, stepchildren receive nothing.
Unmarried Partners
Florida doesn’t recognize common-law marriage for relationships formed after January 1, 1968. An unmarried partner, regardless of how long the relationship lasted or how intertwined the finances were, receives nothing under intestate succession. The same is true for close friends and charitable organizations the decedent may have wanted to benefit.
The Homestead Complication
If the family home qualifies as Florida homestead property and the decedent is survived by both a spouse and lineal descendants, the surviving spouse doesn’t receive outright ownership. Instead, the spouse receives a life estate and the descendants receive the remainder interest, which means the surviving spouse can’t sell or mortgage the home without the cooperation of the decedent’s children, including adult children from a prior relationship. This outcome catches many families completely off guard.
What the Probate Process Looks Like Without a Will in Pinellas County
Without a will naming a personal representative, someone still has to be appointed to manage the estate. Florida Statute § 733.301 sets a priority order for that appointment: the surviving spouse has first priority, followed by a person selected by a majority of the heirs, then the nearest available heir. If heirs can’t agree on who should serve, the decision can end up before a judge, adding time and cost to an already difficult process.
For Largo residents, intestate estates are filed with the 6th Judicial Circuit and adjudicated at the Clearwater Courthouse at 315 Court Street, Clearwater, FL 33756. Pinellas County’s probate docket processes nearly a thousand new cases per month, making it one of the busiest in Florida. That volume means an estate that feels straightforward from a family’s perspective still moves at the court’s pace.
Not every intestate estate requires formal administration. Under Fla. Stat. § 735.201, an estate may qualify for summary administration when the value of non-exempt assets doesn’t exceed $150,000 (raised from $75,000 under CS/HB 1337, effective July 1, 2026, for decedents dying on or after that date), or when the decedent has been deceased for more than two years. Summary administration is a streamlined process that doesn’t require a formal personal representative appointment and can close faster than a full probate proceeding.
What a Will or Trust Would Have Changed
Intestate succession is a default, not an ideal. A properly executed will lets someone name the beneficiaries they actually want to benefit, choose a personal representative they trust, and designate guardians for minor children rather than leaving that determination to a court. A will can include stepchildren, unmarried partners, friends, and charitable causes that the statutory formula simply ignores.
A revocable living trust goes further. Assets held in trust pass entirely outside the probate process. There is no public filing, no court involvement in distribution, and no delay while the docket moves forward. A trust also allows for asset management if the grantor becomes incapacitated before death, a function a will can’t perform while the person is still alive.
The decisions that shape an estate plan extend well beyond document drafting. How assets are titled, whether beneficiary designations are current, and how real property is held all determine which assets fall inside the probate estate and which pass outside it. Attorney Adam Rauman’s background spans both the legal and financial dimensions of estate planning, which means those structural questions get addressed alongside the will and trust documents themselves.
Intestate succession is a system built for the average family. Most families aren’t average. If you’re wondering what the current rules would mean for your specific situation, or what a plan tailored to your family would actually accomplish, we offer consultations and are available for virtual sessions. Reach us at (727) 955-3872.