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Connecticut Intestate Succession
Pillar GuideConnecticut16 min read

Connecticut Intestate Succession

Who inherits without a will in Connecticut: the four spouse tiers of Conn. Gen. Stat. § 45a-437, the heir ladder, and the blended-family trap.

By Settled Editorial

When a Connecticut resident dies without a will, Conn. Gen. Stat. § 45a-437 sets the surviving spouse's share first. Two facts size that share: whether the decedent left children or other issue, and whether every one of those children is also the spouse's child. Whatever the spouse does not take runs down a five-step ladder of heirs at law.

This guide answers one question: who gets what when there is no will in Connecticut. It works through §§ 45a-437 to 45a-452 of the Connecticut General Statutes and flags the four places Connecticut departs from the pattern most states follow. An intestate estate still needs a court appointment before anyone can be paid, so read the Connecticut probate process once you know who the heirs are.

What Dying Without a Will Means in Connecticut

Dying without a valid will is called dying intestate. Section 45a-437(a) reaches two situations. The first is a death with no will at all. The second is a death where a will exists but leaves some part of the decedent's property undisposed of. A single estate can be part testate and part intestate, and the leftover portion follows these rules.

Connecticut has no county probate court. The state divides into probate districts under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 45a-2, each serving one or more of its 169 towns, and the district where the decedent was domiciled at death grants letters of administration under § 45a-303(a)(1). The court must hold a hearing before it appoints anyone. Section 45a-303(c)(1) then ranks the candidates for administrator: the surviving spouse, a child, a grandchild, the decedent's parents, a brother or sister, and finally the next of kin entitled to share. The person appointed has to be entitled to a share of the estate.

Once an administrator is in place, § 45a-431 puts the identification of heirs on the court rather than on the family. The Probate Court ascertains the heirs and distributees of every intestate estate, then orders the administrator to pay over each share in the proportions the statute provides.

What Passes Outside Intestate Succession

These rules reach the probate estate only. Assets that carry their own transfer path skip the whole scheme:

  • Real estate held in joint tenancy with survivorship. Under § 47-14a, a deed running to two or more people and to the survivor of them creates a joint tenancy in fee simple with survivorship.
  • Securities registered in beneficiary form under Connecticut's Uniform Transfer on Death Security Registration Act, §§ 45a-468 to 45a-468m.
  • A motor vehicle owned by one person with a beneficiary written on the certificate of registration. Section 14-16(b) gives that beneficiary 60 days after the death to apply to the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles, and the right lapses if nobody applies.
  • Life insurance, IRAs, 401(k) plans, and pensions with a living named beneficiary.
  • Payable-on-death and transfer-on-death bank accounts.
  • Property titled in a revocable or irrevocable trust.

Two Connecticut quirks belong here. Connecticut does not offer a transfer-on-death deed for real estate, so a house the decedent owned alone runs through probate. And a deed to spouses written as tenants by the entirety does not create that estate in Connecticut. Section 47-14a converts it into a joint tenancy in fee simple with survivorship, which carries the survivorship right without the entirety creditor protection. If keeping the next generation out of court matters to you, avoiding probate in Connecticut starts with these same title questions.

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The Surviving Spouse's Share (Conn. Gen. Stat. § 45a-437)

Section 45a-437 sets four outcomes. Before you apply any of them, subtract any support allowance the Probate Court ordered paid from principal under § 45a-320. The statute computes the spouse's portion on what is left after that allowance, so running the two steps out of order inflates every share.

Section 45a-437(b) supplies two definitions that decide which tier applies. Issue means children who qualify to inherit under § 45a-438 plus the legal representatives of those children. A person counts as a parent only if that person qualifies to inherit from or through the child under § 45a-438b.

The spouse takes the entire estate

Under § 45a-437(a)(1), the surviving spouse takes the whole intestate estate absolutely when no issue and no parent of the decedent survives. A childless married person whose mother and father both died first lands here, and no sibling, niece, or nephew takes anything.

No children, but a parent survives

Under § 45a-437(a)(2), the spouse takes the first $100,000 plus three-quarters of the balance when no issue survives but a parent or both parents do. The surviving parent takes the remaining quarter. On a $500,000 estate that leaves $100,000 to the parents.

All the children are shared children

Under § 45a-437(a)(3), the spouse takes the first $100,000 plus one-half of the balance when the decedent leaves issue and every one of them is also issue of the surviving spouse. The children split the other half.

A child from outside the marriage changes everything

Under § 45a-437(a)(4), the spouse takes one-half of the intestate estate absolutely when one or more of the decedent's surviving issue are not issue of the surviving spouse. Read that tier next to the one above it. The blended family drops the $100,000 preferred share entirely, so a spouse who would have taken $100,000 plus half now takes half and no more. That single fact can move six figures, and it turns on nothing more than whether one child came from an earlier relationship. Pages that carry the $100,000 into this fourth tier are quoting a rule Connecticut does not have.

The $100,000 figure never adjusts

Section 45a-437 carries no cost-of-living provision. The amount reached $100,000 through P.A. 85-332, which raised it from $50,000 and applied to the estates of all persons dying on or after July 1, 1985. Public Act 90-146 later moved the intestate distribution rules out of § 45a-436 and into § 45a-437 without touching the number. Check the tier, not the year of death.

A spouse who abandoned the decedent takes nothing

Section 45a-436(g) bars a surviving spouse who, without sufficient cause, abandoned the other spouse and continued that abandonment to the time of death. The bar removes both the intestate share under § 45a-437 and the statutory share a spouse can elect against a will. Section 45a-436 is where the surviving spouse protections that apply when a will does exist live, including the one-third life estate and its 150-day election clock.

Who Inherits After the Spouse

Children first (§ 45a-438)

Section 45a-438(a) distributes the residue equally among the decedent's children, valued as of the time of distribution, with the legal representatives of a deceased child taking that child's share.

The statute also counts a child conceived and born after the decedent died, on the narrow terms § 45a-785(a) sets. The decedent had to sign and date a written document saying the sperm or eggs may be used for posthumous conception and giving the surviving spouse custody, control, and use of them, and the child had to be in utero no later than one year after the death. Both conditions have to hold, and § 45a-785(b) then puts a 30-day clock on getting that document to the fiduciary.

One adjustment applies before you divide. A child or other descendant who received an advancement from the decedent during life takes only enough to make that person's share, counting the advancement, equal to what it would have been had no advancement been made. Gather the lifetime transfer records before you calculate anyone's share.

The § 45a-439 ladder

When no children or legal representatives of children survive, § 45a-439(a) moves the residue down four rungs, in this order:

  1. Parents, equally, or all to the survivor of them.
  2. Brothers and sisters and those who legally represent them, equally, when no parent survives.
  3. Next of kin in equal degree, equally, when no parent and no sibling or sibling's representative survives.
  4. Stepchildren and those who legally represent them, equally, when no next of kin survives.

That fourth rung is unusual. Connecticut is one of a small number of states that admits stepchildren to intestate succession at all. A stepchild the decedent never adopted still takes nothing while any blood relative in the earlier rungs is alive, so the rung matters mainly when a search for kin comes up empty.

Three details govern how the ladder runs. Section 45a-439(d) computes degrees of kindred by the rule of the civil law. Section 45a-439(a)(3) admits no representatives among collaterals after the representatives of brothers and sisters, which stops the estate from dropping to the children of cousins. And § 45a-439(e) gives relatives of the half blood the same share they would take if they were of the whole blood, with no ancestral-property carve-out. A half-brother counts as a full brother.

The parents rung carries its own bar. A parent who abandoned a minor child and continued that abandonment until the child's death takes nothing from that child's estate and is not treated as a parent for the sibling, next-of-kin, and stepchild rungs either.

Four Connecticut Rules That Break the Pattern

There is no 120-hour survival rule for heirs

Connecticut never adopted the Uniform Probate Code's five-day heir-survival requirement. Section 45a-440(a) instead handles the narrow case where title depends on priority of death and there is no sufficient evidence that two people died otherwise than simultaneously. In that case the property of each person is disposed of as if that person had survived. Two joint tenants who die together split the property half and half under § 45a-440(c). Where an insured and a beneficiary die together, § 45a-440(d) pays the policy as if the insured survived. Any page telling you a Connecticut heir must outlive the decedent by 120 hours is importing another state's rule.

Parentage decides a child's claim

Section 45a-438(b) qualifies a child and the child's legal representatives to inherit from or through a parent when parentage is established under the Connecticut Parentage Act or by adoption. Where parentage rests on § 46b-488(a)(3) or §§ 46b-495 to 46b-505, it has to be established by a voluntary acknowledgment of parentage or by court adjudication. Section 45a-438b applies the same test in the other direction, to a parent and the parent's kindred inheriting from or through a child. Both sections yield to § 45a-731, which governs what a final adoption decree does to the relationship with the birth parents.

The disqualification for killing runs off a conviction

Section 45a-447 blocks a person finally adjudged guilty, or finally found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect under § 53a-13, of a crime under § 53a-54a, 53a-54b, 53a-54c, 53a-54d, 53a-55, 53a-55a, 53a-56, 53a-56a, 53a-122, 53a-123, or 53a-321 from inheriting any part of the deceased victim's estate. The disqualified person is treated as having predeceased the victim. A final adjudication also severs a joint tenancy with survivorship in real property held with the victim and converts it to a tenancy in common, and an interested party records a certified copy in the land records of the town where the property sits. Where no conviction under those sections exists, § 45a-447(b) sends the question to the common law, including equity.

Escheat pays the State Treasurer as abandoned property

When the Probate Court cannot identify or locate the person entitled to a distribution, or finds that nobody is entitled, § 45a-452 orders the property paid to the State Treasurer as abandoned property under part III of chapter 32. The court has to make reasonable efforts to find the person first. Because the money lands in the abandoned-property system, a relative who surfaces later has a claims path rather than a closed door.

Two Deadlines That Sit On Top of the Distribution

An heir who wants nothing can refuse the share. Under § 45a-579(d), a disclaimer of a present interest has to be delivered no later than nine months after the later of the decedent's death or the disclaimant's eighteenth birthday, and it goes to the legal representative of the estate or the holder of legal title. If the disclaimed interest is real property, record a copy with the town clerk of the town where the land sits inside that same nine-month window. Miss the recording and the disclaimer binds nobody but the disclaimant as to that real property.

When real property is distributed, set out, or descends to an heir, § 45a-450 gives the fiduciary one month to obtain a certificate from the judge, clerk, or assistant clerk and record it in the land records of every town where the property lies. On a descent, the month runs from the court's acceptance of the final administration account. The certificate names each recipient with a mailing address and describes the interest each one takes. A fiduciary who skips it faces a fine of up to $25, and the title stays cloudy until the recording happens.

How to Map a Connecticut Intestate Estate

Work the estate in this order:

  1. Sort probate property from assets passing by beneficiary designation, survivorship, or a trust. Only probate property follows these rules.
  2. Subtract any § 45a-320 support allowance ordered from principal.
  3. Confirm who survived, and whether every surviving child of the decedent is also a child of the surviving spouse. That one fact moves the spouse between the whole estate and a bare one-half.
  4. Set the spouse's share under the matching § 45a-437(a) tier, using the fixed $100,000 with no year-of-death adjustment.
  5. Send the residue to the children under § 45a-438, adjusting for advancements, or down the § 45a-439 ladder when no children or their representatives survive.
  6. Check for an abandonment bar, a § 45a-447 disqualification, or a disclaimer before anyone is paid.
  7. Record the § 45a-450 certificate within one month of any real property distribution.

Once you have the survivor list and the tier that matches it, you can estimate each heir's share and check that figure against the arithmetic above before anyone is paid.

A valid will replaces every default above and lets the writer name a fiduciary and a guardian for minor children. The Connecticut will requirements guide covers the two-witness signing rule that makes one hold up.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who inherits if there is no will in Connecticut?

The surviving spouse inherits first under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 45a-437, taking between one-half and the entire intestate estate depending on which children and parents survived. The residue passes to the decedent's children, then parents, then brothers and sisters and their representatives, then next of kin in equal degree, then stepchildren.

Does a Connecticut spouse always inherit everything?

No. The spouse takes it all only when no issue and no parent of the decedent survives. With a surviving parent and no children, the spouse takes $100,000 plus three-quarters of the balance. With shared children only, the spouse takes $100,000 plus one-half. With any child who is not the spouse's child, the spouse takes one-half and nothing more.

Does the $100,000 amount change with inflation?

No. Section 45a-437 has no cost-of-living clause. The amount has stood at $100,000 since Public Act 85-332 raised it from $50,000 for deaths on or after July 1, 1985, so the same number applies to a 1990 death and a 2026 death.

Do stepchildren inherit under Connecticut intestacy?

Sometimes, and Connecticut is one of the few states where the answer is not a flat no. Section 45a-439(a)(4) gives the residue to stepchildren and those who legally represent them, but only when the decedent left no next of kin at all.

Does a Connecticut heir have to survive the decedent by 120 hours?

No. Connecticut did not adopt the 120-hour rule. Section 45a-440 applies only where there is no sufficient evidence that two people died otherwise than simultaneously, and it then treats each person's property as if that person had survived.

What happens if no relatives can be found?

The Probate Court orders the property paid to the State Treasurer as abandoned property under § 45a-452, after making reasonable efforts to identify and locate the person entitled to it.

This guide is general information about Connecticut estates, not advice for your situation.

Sources:

It is not legal advice.

Information current as of August 1, 2026

Settled Estate is not a law firm, and this content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Probate laws and procedures in Connecticut can change. Consult with a qualified attorney for advice specific to your situation. Full disclaimer.

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