If there is no will, or it's invalid, the laws of intestacy apply and the person entitled to take responsibility for the estate is usually the surviving spouse, civil partner or nearest relative.
Property held in a trust you set up while you are alive (a "living trust") is not subject to intestacy laws, and goes, upon your death, to the person you name in the trust.
The rules of intestacy changed in October 2014 and are now much more in favour of the surviving spouse, Myers says.
Gareth Curtis, an associate in the private client team of solicitors DWF, welcomed the recommendations as an improvement on the current rules on intestacy, but said the two- and five-year cut off points would be galling for those who died just before conclusion of those time periods.
To see how your estate would be distributed, based on your residence, relatives and net worth, try our intestacy calculator, created by Johnstown, Pa., estate lawyer Kurt R. Nilson.
In most common law states, property passes through the state's intestacy laws to the decedent's spouse and heirs.
They will go according to the laws of intestacy (laws that dictate what happens if you die without a will), and that could be a parent or sibling.
California, the District of Columbia, Maine, New Jersey and Washington give intestacy standing (equal to that of a spouse) to both surviving heterosexual and homosexual partners, but only if the couple has signed up for a state partners registry.
The amount of the estate awarded to each heir and any surviving spouse is specific to the state's intestacy laws.
"In an era in which serial marriages, serial families, and blended families are not uncommon, according succession rights under our intestacy laws to posthumously conceived children may, in a given case, have the potential to pit child against child and family against family," she said, since the later child's share of the inheritance would reduce the amount available to any older children.
