Every state has an intestacy statute that supplies a default distribution scheme for anyone who dies without a valid will, or whose will fails to dispose of all of their property. The typical priority order gives some or all of the estate to a surviving spouse, then to children (dividing per capita or per stirpes among descendants), then, if there is no surviving spouse or descendant, to parents, then siblings, and progressively more distant relatives, with the state itself inheriting through escheat only if no eligible relative can be found.

The exact shares are far from uniform: some states give a surviving spouse the entire estate if there are no children, or if all children are also children of the surviving spouse, while others split the estate between the spouse and children even in that situation, and community property states apply a separate framework for community assets. Complications like blended families, stepchildren (who typically do not inherit under intestacy absent adoption), half-siblings, and posthumously born or conceived children each have their own state-specific rules that can significantly change who actually inherits.

Because intestacy shares are set by statute rather than negotiated, Juricratic treats a confirmed intestate distribution as a largely fixed structural fact once the governing state and family structure are known, reserving its probability dials for the upstream, genuinely contested questions — such as whether a purported will is valid at all, or whether a claimed heir's relationship can be proven.

Probate attorneys handling an intestate estate first confirm the governing state's specific intestacy statute and carefully map the decedent's family tree, since the applicable shares can differ sharply between similar-looking family structures across states, and disputed heirship (contested paternity, unknown relatives, missing heirs) often becomes the actual litigated issue rather than the distribution formula itself.