Indiana Intestate Succession: Spouse, Children, and Other Heirs

When someone dies in Indiana without a will, Indiana’s intestate succession statute decides who inherits. The order starts with the surviving spouse and children, then reaches outward to parents, siblings, grandparents, and more distant relatives if no closer family survives. How much each person receives depends on who else is alive, and one provision can sharply cut a second spouse’s share of real estate when the decedent left children from an earlier marriage.

What the Surviving Spouse Gets

The spouse’s share turns on which other close relatives survived.

If the decedent left no children or grandchildren and no living parent, the spouse inherits the entire net estate.
If there are no descendants but a parent survives, the spouse takes three-fourths and the parents take the remaining one-fourth.¹
If the decedent left children or grandchildren, the spouse takes one-half and the descendants split the other half.¹

On top of the intestate share, Indiana guarantees the surviving spouse a $25,000 allowance from the estate, paid before heirs are paid and ahead of most creditor claims. If there is no surviving spouse, the decedent’s minor children split that $25,000 equally.²

The Second-Spouse Rule for Blended Families

Indiana treats a second (or later) childless spouse differently when the decedent left children or grandchildren from an earlier marriage. Instead of half the net estate, that spouse receives only 25% of the net equity in the decedent’s real estate, calculated as fair market value minus liens and encumbrances. The rest of the real property vests immediately in the decedent’s descendants from the prior relationship.¹

The reduction applies only to real estate. Personal property still splits half to the spouse and half to the descendants. So a second childless spouse could inherit half of a brokerage account but only a quarter of the equity in the family home.

How Children and Grandchildren Divide Their Share

Whatever portion goes to descendants (either the whole estate when there is no surviving spouse, or the half left after the spouse’s share) is divided by representation, sometimes called per stirpes. Living children share equally. If a child died before the parent but left children of their own, those grandchildren step into their parent’s place and split that share among themselves.

An example: three children, one predeceased, two grandchildren from the deceased child. The two surviving children each take one-third, and the two grandchildren split the remaining third.¹

When There Is No Spouse or Descendant

If the decedent left neither a spouse nor descendants, the estate moves to parents and siblings together. Each parent takes the same share as a sibling. Two parents and two siblings, for instance, produce a four-way equal split. Children of a deceased sibling take that sibling’s share by representation.¹

One wrinkle: when a spouse survives but there are no descendants, the one-fourth not going to the spouse goes only to the parents. Siblings share in the estate only when no spouse survives.

If no parents, siblings, or nieces and nephews are alive, the estate passes to grandparents, then to aunts and uncles, then to their descendants (the decedent’s cousins). At each of those stages the estate splits between the maternal and paternal sides so one side does not shut out the other. If only one side has surviving relatives, that side takes everything. When no relative can be located at any level, the estate escheats to the state of Indiana.¹

Assets That Never Pass Through Intestacy

Intestate succession only governs probate assets. Several common holdings transfer automatically at death and are not affected by the statute at all:

Joint bank accounts, which belong to the surviving account holder as a non-testamentary transfer.
Payable-on-death and transfer-on-death accounts, which go directly to the named beneficiary.
Transfer-on-death deeds for real estate, provided the deed was recorded before the owner’s death; an unrecorded TOD deed is void.³
Life insurance proceeds and retirement accounts, which pay to the named beneficiary unless the estate itself is the beneficiary.
Real estate held by spouses as tenants by the entirety, which passes entirely to the surviving spouse.

Someone can die with substantial wealth and still leave a small probate estate. Only assets without a beneficiary designation or survivorship feature run through the rules above.

Family Situations the Statute Handles Specifically

Adopted Children

An adopted child inherits from adoptive parents exactly like a biological child. Adoption also severs the legal tie to the biological parents, so the child no longer inherits from them by intestacy.⁴

Children Born Outside Marriage

A child born outside of marriage inherits automatically from the mother’s side. Inheriting from the father requires that paternity be legally established, whether by a court order during the father’s lifetime, a paternity affidavit, or the father marrying the mother and acknowledging the child. Posthumous paternity actions have deadlines that depend on the child’s age at the father’s death, ranging from five to eleven months after death.⁵

Posthumous Children

A child conceived before the parent’s death but born afterward inherits as if alive at the time of death, receiving the same share as any other descendant.⁶

Half-Blood Relatives

Half-siblings and other half-blood kin inherit the same share as whole-blood relatives. Indiana draws no line between them.⁷

Someone Who Caused the Death

Indiana’s slayer rule blocks a person who caused the decedent’s death from inheriting. Property they would have received is placed in a constructive trust and distributed as though that person had died before the decedent. A criminal conviction for murder or voluntary manslaughter triggers the rule, and so does a civil finding by a preponderance of the evidence that the person knowingly or intentionally caused the death. The bar reaches beyond intestate shares, covering life insurance proceeds, joint tenancy property, trust distributions, and transfer-on-death transfers.⁸

Small Estates Can Skip Full Probate

Not every intestate estate requires opening a probate case. If the gross probate estate, minus liens, encumbrances, and reasonable funeral expenses, is $100,000 or less, heirs can collect assets by presenting a small estate affidavit to the bank, employer, or other institution holding the property.⁹

Two timing rules apply. For most assets, at least 45 days must pass after the death before the affidavit can be used. For transferring a vehicle or watercraft title, only five days need to elapse. In either case, the affidavit works only if no one has applied for or been appointed as personal representative; once a probate case opens, the affidavit is no longer available.

Taxes on What Is Inherited

Indiana repealed its inheritance tax, estate tax, and generation-skipping tax effective January 1, 2013, so no state-level death tax applies.¹⁰

Federal estate tax still exists but reaches only very large estates. The basic exclusion amount for 2026 is $15,000,000 per individual, and married couples with proper planning can effectively double it. Most intestate Indiana estates fall well below that line, though families with significant real estate or business interests should check.¹¹

Heirs generally owe no income tax on the inheritance itself. Assets that generate ongoing income after transfer, such as rental property or investment accounts, will produce taxable income going forward. Inherited property also takes a stepped-up cost basis to fair market value at the date of death, which can reduce capital gains tax when the heir later sells.

1
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 29-1-2-1 – Estate Distribution
2
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 29-1-4-1 – Surviving Spouse and Family Allowances
3
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 32-17-14-11 – Transfer on Death Deeds
4
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 29-1-2-8 – Adopted Children Inheritance
5
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 29-1-2-7 – Children Born Out of Wedlock Inheritance
6
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 29-1-2-6 – Afterborn Children Inheritance
7
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 29-1-2-5 – Kindred of Half Blood Inheritance
8
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 29-1-2-12.1 – Constructive Trust
9
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 29-1-8-1 – Small Estates Payment Upon Presentation of Affidavit
10
Indiana Department of Revenue. Repeal of the Inheritance Tax, Estate Tax, and Generation Skipping Tax
11
Internal Revenue Service. What’s New – Estate and Gift Tax