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If
a family member is not asked about, that family member is not entitled to
a portion of the intestate
estate in that state and/or with the family facts you have provided.
An Intestacy Calculator's
failure to ask about any particular family member generally results from
one of two factors:
1) Those family members are "trumped"
by more closely related family members.
Every time you answer a question, the Intestacy Calculator evaluates that
answer to determine whether it has enough information or if it needs to
ask for information.
If
it has enough family information, it calculates the intestate distribution
by interpreting the intestacy laws and automatically shows the summary.
If it doesn't have enough information, it determines which question must
be shown to gather the appropriate information.
Questions are
presented in order of priority according to the unique laws of that state.
For instance, every state will ask about children before asking about
grandparents, if at all.
In this
situation, the person you are expecting to see may be entitled to a
portion of the intestate estate with specific circumstances, but not with
the circumstances you have provided.
For example, if you indicate there are living
children you are not typically asked about living siblings, because the
intestate laws do not require a decedent's children to share with the
decedent's siblings.
As another example, most states will not ask
about living siblings when you indicate a parent is living, because the
laws of those states 'stop' when they find a living parent. Other
states, such as Illinois and
Missouri, will always ask about living
siblings no matter how many parents there are, while Texas will only ask
about siblings when there is just one parent or no parents.
The questions you are asked is entirely dependent upon the
interaction of the information you have given up to that point and the
laws of that state.
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2)
Those family members are simply not included with that state's intestacy
laws.
The intestate laws of every single state are
different. This means that, while
Maryland may ask about living step-children at a certain point,
New York
may seem to stop abruptly with an 'escheat' answer.
For example,
Pennsylvania's last
qualified level of relation is "the grandchild of an uncle or aunt," which
is a
first cousin once-removed. Any person more distantly related
than this will not receive a portion of the decedent's intestate estate,
even if the decedent does not have any other living relations.
As
another example, Delaware asks for
"Any living relatives not mentioned above?" before showing the escheat
answer, because Delaware's laws also distribute the intestate estate to
the "next of kin." Unlike Pennsylvania, Delaware does not have a
last qualified level of relation, but basically tries to find any one
before allowing the property to escheat.
Every state has different intestacy laws that
are entirely independent of every other state's intestacy laws.
Although one state may provide a portion of the intestate estate to a
particular family relation, that does not obligate or affect any other
state's provision or lack of provision being made to the same family
member.
If you aren't asked about a specific family
member under any circumstances, that family member is not entitled to a
portion of the intestate estate under the laws of that state without any
regard to the other family circumstances.
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Per Stirpes CalculatorTM
The Per Stirpes CalculatorTM
determines the correct division of shares through the great-grandchild
level of relation from any level of deceased heir according to the
'strict' or traditional method of distribution.
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