South Carolina Intestate Succession: Spouse, Children, and Heirs

If someone dies without a will in South Carolina, intestate succession decides who inherits. The surviving spouse takes everything if there are no children or other descendants, and half the estate if there are. Descendants take the rest, or the full estate when there is no spouse. When neither survives, the law moves outward to parents, then siblings, then grandparents and their descendants. If no relative can be located, the property eventually passes to the state.

What the Surviving Spouse Gets

South Carolina’s spousal share has two settings.¹

No surviving descendants: the spouse inherits the entire intestate estate.
Surviving descendants: the spouse takes one-half, and the descendants split the other half.

There is no dollar amount taken off the top before the split. When descendants exist, it is a straight fifty-fifty.

Parents of the deceased do not reduce the spouse’s share. A spouse with no children still inherits everything even if the deceased’s parents are living; the parents only enter the picture when there is neither spouse nor descendants.²

Exempt Property on Top of the Share

A surviving spouse can also claim up to $45,000 worth of household furniture, automobiles, furnishings, appliances, and personal effects, over and above any liens on those items. If the estate does not contain $45,000 worth of that kind of property, the spouse can reach other estate assets to make up the difference. Minor or dependent children share this same entitlement when there is no surviving spouse.³ This claim sits on top of the intestate share and takes priority over most creditor claims.

Who Counts as a Spouse

A divorced person is not a surviving spouse, even without remarriage. A decree of separate maintenance that does not end the marriage does not disqualify someone from inheriting.⁴

Someone claiming to be a common-law spouse must have that status established by a court proceeding either before the deceased’s death or within eight months after it, or six months after a personal representative is appointed, whichever is later. A claim brought after death must be proved by clear and convincing evidence.⁴ South Carolina stopped recognizing new common-law marriages in 2019, but the rule still matters for relationships formed before then.

What Children and Descendants Get

With no surviving spouse, the entire estate goes to the deceased’s children. Living children split it equally. A child who has already died but left descendants of their own is represented by those descendants, through a system South Carolina calls “representation.”²

Representation works this way. The estate first divides at the closest generation with at least one living heir. Each living person in that generation takes an equal share. The share of anyone in that generation who died leaving descendants gets divided the same way among those descendants.⁵

Say the deceased had three children, but one predeceased her leaving two children of his own. The two surviving children each take one-third. The deceased child’s third splits between his two children, so each of those grandchildren receives one-sixth. When there is a surviving spouse, the same representation rules apply, but only to the half of the estate that the spouse does not take.

Adopted Children

Once a final adoption decree is entered, the adopted child inherits from the adoptive parents the same as a biological child. Inheritance rights from the biological parents are severed, with one exception: when a stepparent adopts, the relationship with the biological parent married to the stepparent stays intact for inheritance purposes.⁶

Children Born Outside Marriage

A child born outside marriage is automatically the mother’s child for inheritance purposes. The child qualifies as the father’s child if either of these is true:⁶

The biological parents participated in a marriage ceremony before or after the birth, even if the marriage turns out to be legally void.
Paternity was established by court order before the father’s death, or within eight months after his death (or six months after a personal representative is appointed, whichever is later). If the adjudication comes after death, the standard is clear and convincing evidence.

There is a limit going the other direction. Even once paternity is established, the father and the father’s relatives cannot inherit from or through the child unless the father openly treated the child as his own and did not refuse to provide support.

When There’s No Spouse or Descendants

If no spouse and no descendants survive, the estate moves outward through the family in a fixed order.²

Parents. Both surviving parents share equally. One surviving parent takes the full share.
Siblings and their descendants. With no parent surviving, brothers and sisters inherit. A deceased sibling’s share passes to that sibling’s children by representation.
Grandparents and their descendants. With no siblings or their descendants, the estate splits in half between the paternal and maternal sides. Each half goes to the grandparents on that side, or if both grandparents on one side are gone, to their descendants by representation. If one side has no takers, the other side takes it all.

Half-blood relatives inherit the same share as full-blood relatives.⁷ Some states reduce a half-blood sibling to half a share; South Carolina does not.

The 120-Hour Rule

An heir who does not survive the deceased by at least 120 hours (five full days) is treated as having died first. If it cannot be determined whether the heir cleared the five-day window, the law presumes they did not. The rule is set aside only when applying it would send the entire estate to the state because no heir met the window.⁸

Who Can Be Disqualified

The Slayer Rule

Anyone who feloniously and intentionally kills the deceased forfeits all inheritance rights, and the estate passes as though the killer died first. A criminal conviction is conclusive, but the probate court can also make the finding on its own using the lower preponderance-of-the-evidence standard.⁹

Parents Who Failed to Support the Child

When parents would otherwise inherit (because the deceased left no spouse, descendants, or other closer heirs), the probate court can reduce or eliminate a parent’s share on finding that the parent failed to reasonably support the deceased during childhood. Either parent or any interested party can raise the issue, and the court decides by a preponderance of the evidence.¹⁰ The rule targets a parent who abandoned a child and later tries to inherit when that child dies young.

What Intestacy Doesn’t Cover

Intestate succession only governs assets that would have passed under a will. Several common assets transfer automatically outside probate and are not touched by these rules:

Real estate or accounts held in joint tenancy with right of survivorship pass to the surviving co-owner.
Real estate held by a married couple as tenants by the entirety passes to the surviving spouse.
Life insurance proceeds pay the named beneficiary.
Payable-on-death and transfer-on-death bank and brokerage accounts transfer to the designated beneficiary.
Trust assets pass according to the trust document.
Retirement accounts, including 401(k) plans and IRAs, pass to the named beneficiary.

Many people assume everything they own will be divided under intestacy rules. Often a large share of an estate already has a designated recipient, and intestacy governs only what’s left.

Debts Come Before Heirs

No heir receives anything until the estate’s debts are handled. If the estate cannot cover all claims in full, South Carolina law sets a strict order:¹¹

Administration costs and reasonable funeral expenses.
Federal priority debts, including federal taxes and penalties.
Medical and personal care expenses from the deceased’s last illness.
State priority debts, including state taxes and Medicaid recovery claims.
All other claims, such as credit cards and personal loans.

Within any single category, creditors share equally. Heirs are not personally liable for the deceased’s debts beyond what the estate can pay, but a heavily indebted estate can leave little or nothing to distribute.

How the Estate Actually Gets Distributed

When there’s no will, the probate court appoints an administrator. That administrator collects assets, has them appraised, verifies debts, pays creditors in the priority above, and distributes what’s left to the heirs identified under the intestacy statute.¹²

Small Estate Shortcut

For estates worth $45,000 or less after subtracting liens and encumbrances, a successor can skip full probate and collect the deceased’s personal property using a sworn affidavit presented to whoever holds the assets. The affidavit must be filed at least 30 days after the death, must confirm that no probate application is pending, and must be approved and countersigned by the probate judge in the county where the deceased lived.¹³ The shortcut covers only personal property such as bank accounts, vehicles, and investment accounts. Real estate needs formal probate or a separate proceeding to get clear title.

If No Heirs Can Be Found

If the probate court works through every branch of the family tree and turns up no qualifying heir, the estate escheats to the state of South Carolina. Unclaimed intestate shares of $5,000 or less may be transferred directly to the South Carolina State Treasurer.¹⁴ Heirs who surface later can still file a claim for escheated property with the state administrator, who must act on each claim within 90 days.¹⁵

1
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code Title 62 – Section 62-2-102
2
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 62-2-103 – Share of Heirs Other Than Surviving Spouse
3
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code Title 62 – Section 62-2-401
4
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 62-2-802 – Effect of Divorce, Annulment, Decree of Separate Maintenance, and Remarriage
5
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code Title 62 – Section 62-2-106
6
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 62-2-109 – Meaning of Child and Related Terms
7
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code Title 62 – Section 62-2-107
8
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 62-2-104 – Requirement That Heir Survive Decedent for One Hundred Twenty Hours
9
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 62-2-803 – Effect of Homicide on Intestate Succession, Wills, Joint Assets, Life Insurance, and Beneficiary Designations
10
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 62-2-114 – Limitation on Parents Entitlement as Intestate Heir
11
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 62-3-805 – Classification of Claims
12
Internal Revenue Service. Responsibilities of an Estate Administrator
13
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code Title 62 – Section 62-3-1201
14
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 62-3-914 – Disposition of Unclaimed Assets
15
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code Title 27 – Section 27-18-250