Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Indiana

Re: No will

Indiana has an inheritance tax, so it doesn't make any difference whether there is a will or no will. If the beneficiaries are direct descendents, like children, then there is a $100,000 deduction before any inheritance tax is due. Collateral descendants, like siblings, the deduction is only $500. Other beneficiaries (except charities) get no deduction.

Re: No will

When a person dies intestate, this merely means he did not execute a will before death. Indiana law determines what relatives inherit. The state seldom receives any part of the estate unless there are no relatives than can be found. Children are the primary heirs (as is the spouse is there is one). If there are no children, the estate goes to surviving parents and siblings or neices and nephews. If there are none of them, then the law goes back to the grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins or their descendents to took for someone to inherit. Only if no relative exists in any of the above categories will the state receive the inheritance. The law also specifies that when the decedent's probate estate is worth less than $25,000, there does not have to be a personal representative appointed by the Court to wind up the person's affairs and distribute his estate. It is a common misconception that if a person dies intestate his property escheats to the state.