How is an Intestate's Property Distributed Under Pennsylvania Intestacy Laws?
Full Question:
Answer:
Without a will, a person is said to have died intestate. Disposition of the person's property is decided by the intestacy laws of the person's home state.
In cases where the decedent didn't own property valued at more than a certain amount, which varies by state, the estate may go through a small estate administration process, rather than the formal probate process. The court will issue letters testamentary or letters of administration, giving the executor or administrator authority to collect the assets and pay the debts of the decedent. In order to issue letters of administration or letters testamentary a petition to probate the estate is filed.
If there is no will, or there is a will but the executor (or executors) named in the will is unable or unwilling to serve, the Register of Wills is required to issue "letters of administration" to the following persons (and with the following priority):
To those who are entitled to the residuary estate under the will (if there is a will).
To the surviving spouse.
To those intestate heirs that the Register believes will best administer the estate.
To the creditors of the estate.
To other fit persons.
To a nominee of any of the preceding persons who renounces his or her right to administer the estate.
To a guardianship support agency serving as guardian of an incapacitated decedent.
If there are creditors such as a nursing home making claims against the estate, heirs of the deceased may want to make sure the probate court is aware of the claim and that his or her interests are properly protected.
In Pennsylvania, the following statute would apply if there is no surviving spouse:
20 Pa.C.S.A. § 2103. Shares of others than surviving spouse
The share of the estate, if any, to which the surviving spouse is not entitled, and the entire estate if there is no surviving spouse, shall pass in the following order:
(1) Issue. — To the issue of the decedent.
(2) Parents. — If no issue survives the decedent, then to the parents or parent of the decedent.
(3) Brothers, sisters, or their issue. — If no parent survives the decedent, then to the issue of each of the decedent's parents.
(4) Grandparents. — If no issue of either of the decedent's parents but at least one grandparent survives the decedent, then half to the paternal grandparents or grandparent, or if both are dead, to the children of each of them and the children of the deceased children of each of them, and half to the maternal grandparents or grandparent, or if both are dead to the children of each of them and the children of the deceased children of each of them. If both of the paternal grandparents or both of the maternal grandparents are dead leaving no child or grandchild to survive the decedent, the half which would have passed to them or to their children and grandchildren shall be added to the half passing to the grandparents or grandparent or to their children and grandchildren on the other side.
(5) Uncles, aunts and their children, and grandchildren. — If no grandparent survives the decedent, then to the uncles and aunts and the children and grandchildren of deceased uncles and aunts of the decedent as provided in section 2104(1) (relating to taking in different degrees).
(6) Commonwealth. — In default of all persons hereinbefore described, then to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Please also see 20 Pa.C.S.A. § 3392. Classification and order of payment
If the applicable assets of the estate are insufficient to pay all proper charges and claims in full, the personal representative, subject to any preference given by law to claims due the United States, shall pay them in the following order, without priority as between claims of the same class:
(1) The costs of administration.
(2) The family exemption.
(3) The costs of the decedent's funeral and burial, and the costs of medicines furnished to him within six months of his death, of medical or nursing services performed for him within that time, of hospital services including maintenance provided him within that time, of services provided under the medical assistance program provided within that time and of services performed for him by any of his employees within that time.
(4) The cost of a gravemarker.
(5) Rents for the occupancy of the decedent's residence for six months immediately prior to his death.
(5.1) Claims by the Commonwealth and the political subdivisions of the Commonwealth.
(6) All other claims.
20 Pa.C.S.A. § 3532. At risk of personal representative
(a) Rights of claimants against personal representatives. — A personal representative, at his own risk and without the filing, audit or confirmation of his account, may distribute real or personal property and such distribution shall be without liability to any claimant against the
decedent, unless the claim of such claimant is known to the personal representative within one year after the first complete advertisement of the grant of letters to such personal representative or thereafter but prior to such distribution.
(b) Rights of claimants against distributed property. —
(1) Personal property. — No claimant shall have any claim against personal property distributed by a personal representative at his own risk pursuant to subsection (a), unless the claim of such claimant is known to the personal representative within one year after the first complete
advertisement of the grant of letters or thereafter but prior to such distribution.
(2) Real property. No claimant shall have any claim against real property conveyed by a personal representative in distribution at his own risk pursuant to subsection (a) hereof, unless such claimant, within one year after the decedent's death, files a written notice of his claim with
the clerk. Such claim against real property shall expire at the end of five years after the decedent's death, unless within that time the personal representative files an account or the claimant files a petition to compel an accounting.
(3) Liens and charges existing at death. Nothing in this section shall be construed as affecting any lien or charge which existed at the time of the decedent's death on his real or personal property.
(b.1) Limitation on rights of claimants. — A personal representative may make written demand by mail or delivery to any person who may have a claim but who has not previously given written notice of his claim to the personal representative. If the personal representative's demand requests the person to give written notice of his claim within 60 days from the mailing or delivery of the demand or within one year from the first complete advertisement of the grant of letters, whichever is later, and the person fails to do so, the person shall not have any rights with respect to such claim under subsection (a) or (b)(1) and shall not have any right on account of such claim to receive notice of the filing of the personal representative's account and of its call for audit or confirmation. The personal representative shall not be liable to any such person or to any beneficiary, heir or next of kin or creditor of the estate for making or failing to make demand under this subsection.
(c) Record of risk distributions. — The personal representative may file with the clerk receipts, releases and refunding agreements which he may have received from persons to whom he has made a risk distribution, or from other parties in interest. Receipts, releases and
refunding agreements so filed shall be indexed under the name of the estate. Their acceptance shall not be construed as court approval of any act of administration or distribution therein reflected.