Under California law, the heirs at law of someone who dies without a will are the relatives the Probate Code names, in a fixed order, to inherit the estate. The surviving spouse or registered domestic partner comes first and takes all community property outright. Separate property is split between the spouse and the decedent’s closest blood relatives, and if there is no spouse, the estate flows down through children, then parents, then siblings, then grandparents and their descendants, reaching further out on the family tree until a living relative is found.
The Surviving Spouse or Registered Domestic Partner
A legally married spouse or a registered domestic partner inherits first. How much they receive depends on how the property was classified during the marriage.
Community property is, broadly, what either spouse earned or acquired during the marriage while living in California. Quasi-community property is the same kind of asset acquired while the couple lived in another state. For both categories, the surviving spouse automatically inherits the decedent’s one-half interest, which means they end up owning all of it.1California Legislative Information. California Probate Code 6401
Separate property is different. It includes anything a spouse owned before the marriage, plus gifts and inheritances received individually during it. The surviving spouse’s share of separate property shrinks as more close relatives survive the decedent:
- All of it, if the decedent left no children, parents, siblings, or descendants of deceased siblings.
- One-half, if the decedent left one child (or the descendants of one deceased child), or left no children but a surviving parent or sibling.
- One-third, if the decedent left more than one child, one child plus the descendants of a deceased child, or the descendants of two or more deceased children.
Whatever portion the spouse does not take passes to the decedent’s other heirs under the rules below.1California Legislative Information. California Probate Code 6401
Children and Their Descendants
Once the spouse’s share is set aside, the decedent’s children are next. If there is no surviving spouse, the children take everything. If there is a spouse, the children divide whatever portion of separate property the spouse does not receive.2California Legislative Information. California Probate Code 6402
Living children at the same generational level split their portion equally. When a child has died before the decedent but left children of their own, California uses a method called per capita at each generation. The estate is first divided into equal shares at the nearest generation with any living members. The shares that would have gone to deceased members of that generation are then pooled and divided equally among the living descendants at the next level.3California Legislative Information. California Probate Code 240 Everyone at the same generation ends up with the same amount.
Adopted, Stepchildren, and Posthumous Children
Legally adopted children inherit on the same footing as biological children. Stepchildren and foster children do not inherit automatically. A stepchild qualifies as an heir only if the parent-child relationship began when the child was a minor and continued through both lifetimes, and only if there is clear and convincing evidence that the stepparent would have adopted the child but for a legal barrier.4California Legislative Information. California Probate Code 6454
A child conceived before the decedent’s death but born after can still inherit, provided parentage can be established under California’s Uniform Parentage Act rules.5California Legislative Information. California Probate Code 6453
Half-Blood Siblings
Siblings who share only one parent inherit the same share as siblings who share both. A half-sister stands in exactly the same place as a full sister.6California Legislative Information. California Probate Code 6406
When There Is No Spouse or Children
If the decedent left no spouse and no descendants, the estate passes to the parents in equal shares, or to the one surviving parent if only one is living.2California Legislative Information. California Probate Code 6402
If both parents are gone, the estate goes to the parents’ descendants, meaning the decedent’s siblings. Living siblings share equally. A deceased sibling’s share passes down to that sibling’s own children, the decedent’s nieces and nephews, using the same per capita at each generation method.2California Legislative Information. California Probate Code 6402
With no parents, siblings, or descendants of siblings, the search moves up to grandparents. Living grandparents inherit in equal shares. If none survive, their descendants, the decedent’s aunts, uncles, and first cousins, take the estate, again by per capita at each generation.2California Legislative Information. California Probate Code 6402
California does not cut the search off at any fixed degree of kinship. If no closer relatives can be found, the statute pushes further out, back through more distant common ancestors, until a living relative turns up. A very distant cousin can inherit if the family connection can actually be proven.
The 120-Hour Survival Rule
An heir has to survive the decedent by at least 120 hours, or five days, to inherit under intestate succession. If clear and convincing evidence of that five-day survival is missing, the heir is treated as if they died first, and the estate moves on to the next person in line. The one exception: if applying the rule would cause the entire estate to escheat to the state, even a brief survival is enough.7California Legislative Information. California Probate Code 6403
Who Is Barred From Inheriting
Anyone who feloniously and intentionally kills the decedent is disqualified. Under California’s slayer rule, that person is treated as having died before the decedent, and the inheritance flows to whoever would have been next.8California Legislative Information. California Probate Code 250 The bar applies to property passing by will, trust, intestate succession, or joint ownership.
A murder conviction conclusively establishes the killing was felonious and intentional. A conviction is not required, though. The probate court can reach its own finding on the evidence, and an acquittal in criminal court does not stop it from doing so.
What Does Not Pass Under These Rules
Intestate succession governs only the property the decedent owned individually without a beneficiary, co-owner, or trust in place. A lot of what people own at death never enters that pool:
- Property held in a living trust passes to the trust’s beneficiaries under the trust terms.
- Real estate or accounts held in joint tenancy with right of survivorship go to the surviving co-owner automatically.
- Bank accounts with a payable-on-death designation go to the named beneficiary.
- IRAs, 401(k)s, and life insurance proceeds go to whoever is named on the account or policy.
- Securities and California real property registered with a transfer-on-death designation pass outside probate.
A beneficiary form on a retirement account overrides what the succession statutes would say. If the asset you are asking about has a named beneficiary or a surviving co-owner, the heir-at-law analysis does not reach it.
When No Heirs Can Be Found
If the court searches exhaustively and still cannot identify a qualifying relative, the estate escheats to the State of California.9Justia. California Probate Code 6800-6806 – Escheat of Decedent’s Property Because California will trace relatives out to very remote branches, this outcome is uncommon.
Escheat is not necessarily the end. A relative who later discovers a claim can file with the California State Controller’s Office to recover the property. There is no deadline for filing, though the office may ask for proof of the family relationship and the decedent’s ownership. Claims go through the Controller’s Unclaimed Property Division.10California State Controller’s Office. How to Claim Property