the rules of inheritance established by law in cases in which there is no will naming
the persons to receive the possessions of a person who has died. The rules of descent
vary somewhat from state to state and will usually be governed by the law of the
state in which the deceased party lived. Depending on which relatives survive, the
estate may go all or in part to the surviving spouse, and down the line from a parent
to children (or if none survive, to grandchildren), or up to surviving parents,
or collaterally to brothers and sisters. If there are no survivors among those relatives,
then aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews may inherit, depending on their
degree of kinship (closeness of family relationship), state laws of descent and
distribution, or whether the deceased person lived in a community property state,
in which the wife has a survivorship right to community property.
See also community property degree of kinship descent and distribution inheritance
intestate succession
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