James and Taylor have been married for one year and eight months when James dies very suddenly in an accident.  The couple never created wills and all of the property James owned prior to their marriage is still titled in just his name.  This was the first marriage for each of them and neither had any children prior to this marriage.  (Which doesn't fit too well with the length of the example marriage and the example scenarios with children and grandchildren below.  The brevity of the marriage controls the surviving spouse's share in some instances and is used to make the examples more interesting.)

James' intestate estate has a total value of $3,000,000 of which $250,000 is real estate and $100,000 derived from an oil lease that James entered prior to marriage.  (Hint: The total estate value is always $3,000,000)

For each of the following scenarios, the state listed is that of James' permanent residence at the time of his death, as well as the location of all his intestate property.

Begin by reading the intestate laws and independently determining each heir's share of every type of property.  When you have the distribution, view the brief answer to compare with your result and then open that state's Intestacy Calculator™ to see how quickly this information is calculated.  (To simplify these examples, the nearest living relations are listed and do not need to be independently determined.)