What is the Spouse's Share of an Intestate Estate in the State of Florida?
The answer to this question can be found in Section 732.102 of the Florida Statutes, which was just amended and effective as of October 1, 2011. A spouse’s share is purely dependant upon the make-up of the surviving family members.
The new law states that if you pass away with a spouse and children, all of whom are children of your marriage with that spouse and neither spouse has other children, then all of the assets will pass to the surviving spouse. If you pass away with children from a previous marriage/relationship, then the surviving spouse gets 50% and the children from the previous marriage/relationship get 50%. If you pass away which children from your marriage but your surviving spouse has children from their first marriage, then the surviving spouse gets 50% and your children get 50%.
The last two situations ensure that the surviving children of the parent who passed away are not disinherited completely by the surviving spouse.
To learn more about the spouse's share of an intestate estate in Florida, please contact our estate planning attorney at Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A. located in Jacksonville and Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.
