The Uniform Probate Code is a model statute, first drafted by the Uniform Law Commission in 1969 and last amended in 2019, that standardizes how estates are administered, how property passes when someone dies, and how surviving spouses and children are protected. Roughly 18 states have enacted it in whole or in part, and courts in states that haven’t adopted it often look to its provisions as persuasive authority when interpreting their own probate laws.
What the Code Covers
The code reaches well beyond validating wills. It governs intestate succession (what happens when someone dies without a will), the probate process itself, guardianship and conservatorship for people who cannot manage their own affairs, and non-probate transfers like life insurance payouts, payable-on-death accounts, and joint bank accounts that move outside a will.
It also sets out the duties of personal representatives (the people who actually administer estates), the rights of creditors to collect debts owed by the deceased, and the protections available to surviving spouses and minor children. Pulling all of these subjects into one body of law is the point: estate administration becomes more predictable and less expensive for families already dealing with a death.
Which States Use It
Adoption varies widely. States including Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Utah have enacted the code in whole or in part. Some adopted it as a complete package; others pulled in specific articles that filled gaps in existing law and left the rest untouched.
States that do adopt the code frequently make local changes, adjusting dollar thresholds, deadlines, or procedural details to fit their own tax structures and legal traditions. The core principles stay intact, but the specific numbers in any given state may differ from the model text. Check your state’s version before relying on any figure here.
Making a Valid Will
Article II sets out what it takes to create a legally valid will. A will must be in writing and signed by the person making it, or by someone else at their direction and in their conscious presence. From there, the will must either be signed by at least two witnesses who each observed the signing or heard the testator acknowledge the signature, or be acknowledged by the testator before a notary public.
The code also recognizes holographic wills, which are handwritten documents that don’t meet the normal witness requirements. A holographic will is valid as long as the signature and the material portions of the document are in the testator’s own handwriting. This matters in emergencies where someone writes out their wishes by hand with no witnesses nearby. Not every state that has adopted parts of the code accepts holographic wills, so whether one holds up depends on local law.
What Happens Without a Will
Article II, Part 1 provides a default distribution plan tied to family relationships. The surviving spouse’s share depends on who else survived the deceased. Under the model code’s suggested thresholds:
- No surviving descendants or parents: the spouse inherits the entire estate.
- All descendants are shared with the spouse, and the spouse has no other descendants: the spouse inherits the entire estate.
- Surviving parents but no descendants: the spouse receives the first $300,000 plus three-fourths of the remaining balance.
- All descendants are shared, but the spouse has other children from a different relationship: the spouse receives the first $225,000 plus one-half of the remaining balance.
- The deceased has descendants who are not descendants of the surviving spouse: the spouse receives the first $150,000 plus one-half of the remaining balance.
These dollar figures appear in brackets in the model text, meaning the drafters intended states to adjust them. If no spouse or descendants survive, the estate passes to parents, then to siblings and their descendants, and on to more remote relatives. Legally adopted children inherit on the same footing as biological children, and half-blood relatives inherit on the same footing as whole-blood relatives.
Per Capita at Each Generation
When the estate passes to descendants across multiple generations, the code uses a method called per capita at each generation. The estate is first divided into equal shares at the generation closest to the deceased that has at least one living member. Each living person in that generation gets one share. Any shares that would have gone to deceased members of that generation are pooled and redistributed equally among the next generation using the same method. Cousins in the same generation are treated equally, even if their respective parents died at different times.
How Probate Works Under the Code
Article III sets up a tiered system, scaling court involvement to the complexity and contentiousness of each case.
Informal Probate
Most uncontested estates move through informal probate. A registrar reviews the application and issues a statement allowing the personal representative to begin work without a formal court hearing. Once appointed, the personal representative must notify anyone who appears to have an interest in the estate by ordinary mail.
Formal Probate
When someone challenges the validity of a will or heirs disagree, formal probate adds judicial oversight. It requires more filings and court appearances, but it produces a court order that finalizes the distribution and shields the personal representative from future liability on resolved matters. Many estates begin informally and shift to formal probate only if a specific conflict surfaces.
Small Estate Affidavits
For estates below a certain value, heirs can skip probate entirely by filing a small estate affidavit. The claimant presents a sworn statement to banks or other institutions holding the assets, and those institutions transfer ownership without court involvement. The dollar threshold varies widely by state, ranging from roughly $10,000 to $275,000, with most states setting the cutoff somewhere between $50,000 and $100,000.
Protections for a Surviving Spouse and Children
The code builds in several safeguards so that a surviving spouse or minor children aren’t left with nothing, regardless of what the will says.
The Elective Share
A surviving spouse can reject whatever the will provides and claim a percentage of the “augmented estate” instead. Under Section 2-203, the augmented estate includes the decedent’s net probate estate, the decedent’s non-probate transfers to others (like revocable trusts or joint tenancies), non-probate transfers to the surviving spouse, and the surviving spouse’s own property. The broad definition prevents someone from funneling assets into non-probate vehicles to effectively disinherit a spouse while appearing generous on paper.
The elective share percentage follows a sliding scale tied to the length of the marriage. It starts at 3 percent for marriages of one year and climbs to 50 percent for marriages lasting 15 years or more. A spouse claiming the elective share must file a petition within nine months after the date of death or within six months after the will is admitted to probate, whichever deadline expires later.
Homestead Allowance, Exempt Property, and Family Allowance
Three additional protections take effect before creditors or other beneficiaries receive anything. The homestead allowance provides a fixed dollar amount to the surviving spouse (or to minor children if there’s no surviving spouse) to help maintain a residence. The exempt property allowance covers household furniture, vehicles, appliances, and personal effects up to a separate dollar cap. Both take priority over the claims of general creditors.
The family allowance works differently. Rather than a fixed lump sum, it provides a reasonable allowance for the maintenance of the surviving spouse and any minor or dependent children during estate administration. If the estate lacks enough assets to pay all claims, the family allowance cannot continue for longer than one year. The specific dollar amounts for the homestead and exempt property allowances are suggested figures in the model code, and states routinely adjust them.
Order Creditors Get Paid
When an estate doesn’t have enough assets to pay every claim in full, the personal representative must follow a strict priority order:
- Administration costs, including court fees and attorney fees.
- Funeral expenses.
- Family protections (homestead allowance, family allowance, and exempt property).
- Federally preferred debts, including taxes given priority under federal law.
- Medical expenses of the last illness.
- State-preferred debts.
- All remaining claims, including credit cards and personal loans.
Within any single class, no individual creditor gets preferential treatment. If assets run out partway through a class, each creditor in that class receives a proportional share.
Personal Representative Duties and Liability
The personal representative (called an executor in some states) is a fiduciary held to the same standard of care as a trustee. That means acting in the best interests of the estate and its beneficiaries, not in one’s own interest. Responsibilities include collecting assets, paying valid debts, filing tax returns, and distributing the remaining property according to the will or intestacy rules.
A personal representative who mismanages estate assets or breaches their fiduciary duty is personally liable for the resulting losses, to the same extent a trustee of an express trust would be. Any interested person, including a beneficiary, creditor, or co-representative, can petition the court for removal. Grounds include mismanagement, failure to perform required duties, disregarding a court order, incapacity, or simply that removal would be in the estate’s best interests. The threshold is deliberately broad, because a bad personal representative can do irreversible damage in a short period.
When Inheritance Is Automatically Stripped Away
Two provisions cut off inheritance rights by operation of law, and both catch people off guard more often than you would expect.
The Slayer Rule
Under Section 2-803, anyone who feloniously and intentionally kills the decedent forfeits all benefits from the estate. That includes an intestate share, an elective share, the homestead allowance, exempt property, and the family allowance. The estate is distributed as though the killer died before the decedent, so the killer’s own descendants may still inherit in their place.
A criminal conviction is conclusive proof, but a conviction isn’t required. If there’s no criminal case, or the killer is acquitted on a technicality, the probate court can independently determine guilt using the lower “preponderance of the evidence” standard. The rule reaches beyond the probate estate: it revokes beneficiary designations on life insurance, retirement accounts, and other non-probate transfers, and it severs joint tenancies so the killer takes only half the property rather than everything by survivorship.
Divorce Revocation
Section 2-804 automatically revokes any revocable disposition of property to a former spouse upon divorce or annulment. It covers wills, revocable trusts, life insurance beneficiary designations, payable-on-death accounts, retirement plan beneficiaries, and nominations of the former spouse to serve as personal representative, trustee, or agent. Relatives of the former spouse lose their designations too.
The logic is practical. Most people who divorce don’t intend to leave everything to their ex, but many forget to update their beneficiary forms. The code treats the former spouse and their relatives as though they disclaimed everything, so the property passes to the next person in line. The revocation does not apply if a court order, divorce settlement, or the express terms of the document say otherwise, so anyone who genuinely wants a former spouse to inherit can still make that happen by updating their estate plan after the divorce.