Under Louisiana intestate law, when a person dies without a valid will, the Civil Code decides who inherits. Descendants come first, but the surviving spouse’s rights depend on whether the property is community or separate, and for separate property the decedent’s parents and siblings actually rank ahead of the spouse. That last point catches most families by surprise.1Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Code CC – Chapter 2 of Intestate Succession
Louisiana’s rules come from French and Spanish civil law rather than English common law, which is why they don’t line up with what people expect from other states. The single most important thing to understand before anything else: community property and separate property follow completely different inheritance paths.
Community Property vs. Separate Property
Community property is anything either spouse acquired during the marriage through work or effort. The surviving spouse already owns half of it. The question intestate law answers is what happens to the decedent’s half.
Separate property is anything the decedent owned before the marriage, inherited, or received as a personal gift. Different rules apply, and the surviving spouse’s position is much weaker.
If the decedent was unmarried, everything is treated as separate property for these purposes.
Who Inherits Community Property
If the decedent leaves living descendants (children, or grandchildren stepping into a deceased child’s place), the children inherit the decedent’s half of the community property. But the surviving spouse receives a usufruct over that share. A usufruct is the right to use the property and collect its income, such as rent or investment returns, for as long as the usufruct lasts. The children hold “naked ownership” during that period: they own the property on paper but cannot use or sell it. The surviving spouse’s usufruct ends at death or remarriage, whichever comes first.2Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Code CC Art. 890 – Usufruct of Surviving Spouse
If the decedent leaves no descendants at all, the surviving spouse inherits the decedent’s half of the community property in full ownership.3Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Code CC Art. 889 – Devolution of Community Property
Who Inherits Separate Property
Separate property is where families run into the biggest gap between expectation and law.
When There Are Descendants
Children (or grandchildren by representation) inherit all of the separate property in equal shares. The surviving spouse gets nothing from separate property when descendants exist.4Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Code CC Art. 888 – Succession Rights of Descendants A widow or widower who assumes they inherit the family home is often wrong: if the house was the decedent’s separate property and there are children, the children own it.
When There Are No Descendants but Parents and Siblings Survive
The siblings (or descendants of deceased siblings) inherit ownership of the separate property, but subject to a usufruct in favor of the surviving parent or parents. The parents use the property and collect its income for life; the siblings own it underneath. When both parents survive, the usufruct is joint and successive, so the death of one parent doesn’t cut it in half; the survivor continues to hold the full usufruct.5Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Code CC Art. 891 – Devolution of Separate Property, Parents and Brothers and Sisters
If only siblings survive (no parents), the siblings take the separate property outright. If only parents survive (no siblings or their descendants), the parents take it outright.6Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Code CC Art. 892 – Devolution of Separate Property in Absence of Parents or in Absence of Brothers and Sisters
When Only the Spouse Survives
The surviving spouse inherits separate property only if the decedent left no descendants, no parents, and no siblings or descendants of siblings.7Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Code CC Art. 894 – Separate Property, Rights of Surviving Spouse Compared with most states, this is a low priority. If most of the decedent’s wealth was separate, a surviving spouse can end up with very little.
When No Close Relatives Survive
The law then reaches to grandparents and other ascendants, and after that to aunts, uncles, and cousins. When ascendants exist in the same degree on both the paternal and maternal sides, the property splits into two halves, one for each side.8Justia. Louisiana Code Civil Code Art. 895 – Separate Property, Rights of Other Ascendants If no relatives can be located, the estate escheats to the state of Louisiana.9Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Code CCP Art. 3431 – Small Successions, Judicial Opening Unnecessary
Half-Blood Siblings
Blended families need a separate rule. When siblings all share both parents with the decedent, they simply split the property equally. When there’s a mix of full siblings and half-siblings, the separate property is divided into two equal pools, one for the paternal line and one for the maternal line. Full siblings draw from both pools; half-siblings draw only from their own line. If every surviving sibling is on the same side, they take the whole share.10Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Code CC Art. 893 – Brothers and Sisters Related by Half-Blood
Forced Heirship
Louisiana is the only state with forced heirship. It applies whether or not there’s a will. A forced heir is a child of the decedent who, at the time of death, is 23 or younger (has not yet turned 24), or a child of any age who is permanently unable to care for themselves or manage their affairs because of mental incapacity or physical infirmity.11FindLaw. Louisiana Code Civil Code Tit. II, Art. 1493 – Forced Heirs
With one forced heir, one-quarter of the estate is reserved. With two or more, one-half is reserved. The rest is the disposable portion.12FindLaw. Louisiana Code Civil Code Tit. II, Art. 1495 – Forced Portion
Forced heirship rarely creates a separate fight in a pure intestate case because children already inherit. It matters most when someone tried to disinherit a qualifying child by will, or when a will has been invalidated and forced heirship acts as a backstop for young or disabled children.
Heirs Who Lose the Right to Inherit
Louisiana law lets a court declare a successor “unworthy” if that person was convicted of intentionally killing or attempting to kill the decedent, or if the court finds they participated in such a killing even without a criminal conviction. An executive pardon or a pardon by operation of law does not restore the right to inherit.13Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Code CC Art. 941 – Declaration of Unworthiness Any interested party (another heir, a creditor, anyone with a stake) can raise the claim within the succession. If the court grants it, that heir is treated as having predeceased the decedent, and their share moves down the line.
Assets That Skip Intestate Succession
Not everything the decedent owned passes through the intestate rules above. Several common assets transfer directly to a named beneficiary or co-owner, regardless of the succession:
- Life insurance proceeds go to the named beneficiary.
- Retirement accounts (IRAs, 401(k)s, 403(b)s) and annuities pass to whoever is on the beneficiary form.
- Property held jointly with right of survivorship goes to the surviving co-owner.
- Payable-on-death bank or brokerage accounts go to the named beneficiary.
These assets follow the paperwork, not the Civil Code, unless the estate itself was named as the beneficiary. An outdated beneficiary designation, like an ex-spouse still listed on a life insurance policy, will direct assets there even though intestate law would have sent them elsewhere.
Opening the Succession
To get property into the heirs’ names, someone has to open a succession. The petition is filed in the district court for the parish where the decedent was domiciled at death. If the decedent lived out of state but owned immovable property in Louisiana, the succession can be opened in any parish where that property sits.14Louisiana Legal Services and Pro Bono Desk Manual. 6.3.1 General Rules for Judicial Successions
The court appoints an administrator, usually a close family member, to inventory the assets, notify heirs and creditors, pay debts, and distribute what remains.15Loyola University New Orleans. Successions in Louisiana
Small Succession Affidavit
Smaller estates can skip a full court proceeding. If the decedent died domiciled in Louisiana with no will and the estate’s gross value is $125,000 or less as of the date of death, the heirs can use a small succession affidavit.16Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Code CCP Art. 3421 – Small Successions Defined The same procedure is available for non-residents who owned Louisiana property worth $125,000 or less, and for any succession where the decedent died more than 20 years before the affidavit, regardless of value. That last option is what families use to clean up title on property a parent or grandparent never formally passed down.
Debts Get Paid Before Heirs Get Paid
The estate has to satisfy its obligations before property flows to heirs. That includes the decedent’s personal debts (credit cards, mortgages, medical bills, funeral expenses) and the administrative costs of the succession itself. Secured creditors are paid first, in the priority of their security interests; unsecured creditors share whatever is left, proportionally.17LouisianaLawHelp.org. Debts and Successions
Heirs can be sent into possession when the succession is “relatively free from debt.” Secured debts like mortgages don’t count against that assessment, because the collateral already protects the creditor.18Louisiana Legal Services and Pro Bono Desk Manual. 5.4 Succession Debts So the shares described above are shares of what is left after the estate’s obligations are satisfied, not shares of the gross value on the date of death.