Connecticut Surviving Spouse Rights

Connecticut gives a surviving spouse a life estate in one third of the property passing under the deceased spouse's will. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 45a-436(a) calls that the statutory share, and it is what other states name an elective share. The spouse must file a written notice of intent with the Probate Court within 150 days after the court mails the decree admitting the will to probate, or the share is gone.

Two details decide most Connecticut cases. The share is a life estate, so the spouse receives the use and income of a third rather than a third of the money. And the measuring stick is the will estate alone, so joint accounts, beneficiary designations and trust assets never enter the calculation. This guide works through § 45a-436, the discretionary support allowance in § 45a-320, the right to stay in the home under § 45a-321(b), and the four ways a Connecticut spouse loses these rights.

What Connecticut Gives a Surviving Spouse

Five protections exist. All five come from chapter 802b of Title 45a, the Decedents' Estates chapter, and none of them carries a fixed dollar figure.

Notice what is missing from that table. Connecticut has no probate homestead allowance and no fixed-dollar exempt-property allowance, so a page quoting a Connecticut spouse a first-dollar figure off the top of the estate is describing another state's law.

The Statutory Share Is a Life Estate (§ 45a-436(a))

Section 45a-436(a) defines the statutory share as a life estate of one third in value of all the property passing under the will, real and personal, legally or equitably owned by the deceased spouse at the time of death, after payment of all debts and charges against the estate. The section adds that no disposition of the property by will to other parties can defeat that right to a third.

Read the words "life estate" carefully, because they change the answer for every estate. The surviving spouse takes the use and the income of one third for life. The remainder interest in that third belongs to the people the will names, and it reaches them when the life estate ends. A spouse who elects the share on a $900,000 will estate does not receive $300,000 to spend.

One correction belongs on this page, and it has a traceable source. Raised Senate Bill No. 956 of the 2017 session, An Act Concerning a Surviving Spouse's Statutory Share, would have rewritten § 45a-436 to give a one-half life estate for the estate of a spouse dying on or after October 1, 2018. That bill died in the Judiciary Committee after a public hearing on March 9, 2017, and never became law. The most recent amendment to § 45a-436 is Public Act 13-81, which moved the filing deadline to run from the mailing of the decree. So any page telling a Connecticut reader the share is one half for a death after October 1, 2018 is quoting a bill that failed.

Only Property Passing Under the Will Counts

Connecticut measures the share against the will estate, and stops there. The statute says property "passing under the will," so the following never enter the arithmetic:

• Bank and brokerage accounts held in joint tenancy with survivorship.
• Life insurance, retirement accounts and annuities payable to a named beneficiary.
• Assets titled in a revocable living trust the decedent funded during life.
• Securities registered in transfer-on-death form.

Many states answer this problem with an augmented estate that pulls those transfers back in and measures the spouse's percentage against the larger pool. Connecticut wrote no augmented-estate rule. That gap is the single biggest planning fact in this area, and it cuts both ways: it can leave a spouse with a third of very little, and it can leave a spouse who already received the house by survivorship in a strong position. Our guide to how to avoid probate in Connecticut walks through which transfers land outside the will.

The 150-Day Election Deadline (§ 45a-436(c))

The surviving spouse files a written notice of intention to take the statutory share with the Probate Court before which the estate is in settlement, not later than 150 days after the mailing of the decree admitting the will to probate. If no notice arrives in that window, the statute bars the spouse from the share.

Three points about that clock:

1. It starts on the mailing of the decree, not on the date of death. The decree admitting the will comes after the hearing, so the 150 days can begin months into the case. Our Connecticut probate timeline shows where admission of the will falls against the other deadlines.
2. The Probate Court publishes no election form. Section 45a-436(c) asks for a notice in writing, and the Connecticut Probate Courts form library carries no statutory-share election form. A dated, signed writing filed with the court is what the statute requires.
3. A conservator or guardian can file for an incapacitated spouse. The conservator or guardian of the estate of the surviving spouse may file the notice with the approval of the Probate Court that appointed them, after notice and hearing.

A Gift in the Will Is Presumed to Replace the Share (§ 45a-436(b))

If the deceased spouse left the survivor something by will, that gift counts as being in lieu of the statutory share unless the will expressly states otherwise or the contrary clearly appears in the will. The surviving spouse may still elect the statutory share instead of the gift. So the decision is a choice between two paths and rarely a way to collect both.

The comparison that decides it has to happen before the 150 days expire: the value of what the will actually leaves, set against a life estate in one third of the will estate net of debts and charges, adjusted for the survivor's age, because a life estate is worth more to a 62-year-old survivor than to an 88-year-old one. The Connecticut executor duties guide covers the inventory that produces the numbers behind that comparison.

How the Share Gets Set Out (§ 45a-436(e))

The fiduciary charged with administering the estate sets out the statutory share. The Probate Court may instead appoint distributors to do it, on its own motion or on the application of any interested person. The share may consist of personal property, real property, or both, according to the judgment of the fiduciary or the distributors.

Timing interacts with the support allowance. Under § 45a-436(d), a spouse who received a support allowance from the estate under § 45a-320 does not take the statutory share until the period covered by that allowance runs out.

The annotations the General Assembly prints under § 45a-436 add a valuation rule from the Connecticut Supreme Court, reported at 317 Conn. 185: the statutory share gets calculated before the deduction of estate taxes and on the value of the estate as of the time of distribution, and the income rate on the share between the date of death and the actual setting out of the third is the average yield of the estate over that period.

Four Ways a Connecticut Spouse Loses the Share

A contract that provided something in lieu of it. Section 45a-436(f) withdraws the statutory share in any case where, by written contract made before or after the marriage, either party received from the other what was intended as a provision in lieu of the share. Connecticut governs those agreements through the Connecticut Premarital Agreement Act, §§ 46b-36a to 46b-36j. Section 46b-36d(a)(3) lets the parties contract about the disposition of property on death, and § 46b-36g lists what defeats enforcement: an agreement not executed voluntarily, unconscionability when executed or when enforcement is sought, no fair and reasonable disclosure of the other party's property, financial obligations and income, and no reasonable opportunity to consult independent counsel.

Abandonment. Section 45a-436(g) bars a surviving spouse from both the statutory share and the intestate share of § 45a-437 if that spouse abandoned the other without sufficient cause and continued the abandonment to the time of death. Connecticut needs no lifetime court judgment for this bar, which sets it apart from states that require one.

The 150-day deadline. Silence is a decision. A spouse who lets the window in § 45a-436(c) close keeps only what the will gives.

A homicide adjudication. Section 45a-447 makes a person finally adjudged guilty, or found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect, of the crimes it lists ineligible to inherit from the victim by will, by intestate succession, or as a beneficiary or survivor. That person counts as having predeceased the victim, and a real-property joint tenancy with the victim converts to a tenancy in common.

Electing the statutory share is not a challenge to the will's validity. A spouse who believes the will itself is invalid is asking a different question, and the route runs through a Connecticut will contest rather than through § 45a-436.

The Support Allowance (§ 45a-320)

Section 45a-320(a) lets the Probate Court allow, out of any real or personal estate of the deceased in settlement before it, whatever amount the court judges necessary for the support of the surviving spouse or family during settlement of the estate. There is no statutory ceiling, no statutory floor and no inflation index. The amount is whatever the court finds necessary on the facts, and the allowance is available even in a small estate settled under § 45a-273.

The petition is Probate Court form PC-202, Petition for Support Allowance. For a fuller walkthrough of who qualifies, how the court sets an amount when the statute names none, and how the allowance interacts with creditors and with the small-estate route, see the Connecticut family allowance guide.

Subsection (b) gives the court four options it may combine in the decree, and the third one carries real money:

• The allowance may run for the whole settlement period, or for a fixed shorter term the court can renew.
• The allowance may be paid as a lump sum.
• The allowance may be ordered to vest retroactively as of the moment of death, which fixes it as a sum certain on the date of death, keeps it alive through the survivor's later death or remarriage, and makes it the absolute property of the surviving spouse or that spouse's estate, free of restriction on use, encumbrance or disposition.
• The allowance may be charged in whole or in part against the recipient's right to estate income earned during settlement.

That vesting provision is the difference between an allowance that outlives the recipient and one that does not, because without it an allowance can end when the survivor dies or remarries. Subsection (c) adds a smaller benefit: the court may allow the surviving spouse or family the use, during settlement, of any motor vehicle the decedent maintained during life as a family car.

An allowance also changes the intestate arithmetic. Section 45a-437(a) computes the spouse's intestate share on the intestate estate determined after payment of any support allowance from principal.

Staying in the Home (§ 45a-321(b))

During settlement the fiduciary holds possession, care and control of the decedent's real property, and its products and income vest in the fiduciary as personal property, unless the will made a specific devise of that real property or gave directions inconsistent with the section. Against that backdrop, § 45a-321(b) protects the household: the family of the decedent is allowed to remain in the dwelling house the decedent occupied at the time of death, and may occupy the land and buildings connected with it that the court considers necessary for their convenience and comfort, until the home is sold, distributed or otherwise disposed of according to law.

Connecticut sets no month limit here. States that copy the Uniform Probate Code usually cap this right at six months, and Connecticut did not. The right still ends when the property changes hands, so it protects occupancy rather than ownership. Whether the house itself passes to the spouse turns on the will, on intestacy, or on how title was held. Our guide to selling inherited property in Connecticut covers what happens when the estate does sell.

Connecticut Has No Homestead Allowance and No Exempt-Property Allowance

Title 45a contains no section awarding a surviving spouse or minor children a fixed sum out of the estate in place of a homestead, and no section awarding a fixed dollar value of household goods and vehicles the way Massachusetts, Minnesota and Maine do. The family-protection sections of chapter 802b are § 45a-320, § 45a-321 and § 45a-435, and none of them names a number.

Section 45a-435 is the closest thing Connecticut has to an exempt-property rule, and it applies only to an insolvent estate. When the personal property of the deceased, excluding household goods exempt from execution, cannot pay the debts, the Probate Court shall set out those household goods to the surviving spouse and may set out any other exempt property to the surviving spouse. A solvent Connecticut estate triggers nothing under this section.

The $250,000 figure a search will surface belongs to a different statute. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 52-352b(21) exempts the homestead of the exemptioner up to $250,000, measured as fair market value less any statutory or consensual lien, from execution against a living debtor. Connecticut requires no declaration and no recording for it. Treating that $250,000 as an amount a widow collects from a probate estate is a common error, and it is not what the statute does. Our Connecticut debt payment priority guide sets out the § 45a-365 order in which an estate actually pays.

If There Was No Will (§ 45a-437)

The statutory share needs a will to elect against. When someone dies intestate, or leaves part of the property undisposed of, § 45a-437(a) sets the spouse's share on the intestate estate remaining after any support allowance paid from principal:

• No surviving issue and no surviving parent: the entire intestate estate, absolutely.
• No surviving issue, but a surviving parent or parents: the first $100,000 plus three quarters of the balance, absolutely.
• Surviving issue, all of whom are also the spouse's issue: the first $100,000 plus one half of the balance, absolutely.
• Surviving issue, one or more of whom are not the spouse's issue: one half of the intestate estate, absolutely, with no first-dollar amount.

Note the word "absolutely" running through all four tiers. An intestate Connecticut spouse takes outright ownership, while a spouse who elects against a will takes a life estate. The fourth tier is the one that surprises blended families: a stepchild in the mix removes the $100,000 preferred share entirely. The Connecticut intestate succession guide works through the full heir ladder below the spouse.

A Will Signed Before the Marriage (§ 45a-257a)

A spouse who married the testator after the will was executed has a separate route that does not depend on the 150-day election. Under § 45a-257a(a), a testator who makes no provision by will for a spouse who married the testator after the will was executed leaves that spouse the same share of the estate the spouse would have received had the decedent left no will. Two findings defeat the claim: the will shows the omission was intentional, or the testator provided for the spouse by a transfer outside the will and the intent that the transfer replace a testamentary provision is shown by the testator's statements or reasonably inferred from the amount of the transfer or other evidence.

Devises and legacies in the will abate under § 45a-426 to fund that share. And § 45a-257a(c) closes the door on stacking: a spouse who receives a share under this section may not also elect the statutory share under § 45a-436. Read this section alongside the Connecticut will requirements guide, because the same marriage that triggers § 45a-257a leaves the rest of the will standing.

Divorce Revokes the Will's Gifts to a Former Spouse (§ 45a-257c)

If a marriage ends by dissolution, divorce or annulment after the will was executed, § 45a-257c revokes any disposition or appointment of property the will made to the former spouse, any provision conferring a power of appointment on the former spouse, and any nomination of that person as executor, trustee, conservator, guardian or other fiduciary, unless the will expressly says otherwise. Property blocked from reaching the former spouse passes as if that person had failed to survive the testator.

Two exceptions ride on the section. Remarriage to the same former spouse revives provisions revoked only by § 45a-257c. And a decree of separation that leaves the marriage intact is not a dissolution or divorce for this purpose, so a legally separated spouse is still a surviving spouse in the Probate Court.

What the Election Decision Turns On

A Connecticut surviving spouse weighing the statutory share is generally looking at six things:

1. The date the Probate Court mailed the decree admitting the will. That mailing date fixes the 150-day deadline, and the court's file carries it.
2. The net will estate. The share is one third in value after all debts and charges, so the inventory and the creditor picture both move the number. The Connecticut creditor claims guide explains the 150-day presentment window that runs alongside.
3. What the will already leaves. A devise is presumed to replace the share, so the comparison is one path against the other.
4. What passed outside the will. Survivorship accounts, beneficiary designations and trust assets never enter the share, and a spouse who already holds them may do better taking the will's gift.
5. The survivor's own life expectancy. A life estate in one third is a stream of income and use, and what it is worth depends on age and health.
6. The tax picture. A life estate rather than an outright gift changes how the marital deduction applies, which matters on an estate large enough to file. Our Connecticut estate tax guide covers the filing thresholds.

The election runs one way once it is made, and the arithmetic on a blended family or a real-estate-heavy estate is easy to get wrong, so a licensed Connecticut attorney reviewing the will, the inventory and the deed is the usual way this decision gets made.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Connecticut have an elective share?

Yes, and Connecticut calls it the statutory share. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 45a-436(a) lets a surviving spouse elect a life estate of one third in value of all the property passing under the deceased spouse's will, real and personal, after payment of all debts and charges against the estate. Connecticut uses no augmented estate and no percentage that scales with the length of the marriage.

How much is the Connecticut statutory share?

A life estate in one third of the value of the property that passes under the will, measured after debts and charges. The surviving spouse takes the use and the income of that third for life. Outright ownership of the third does not pass to the spouse, so the remainder still reaches whoever the will names.

How long does a surviving spouse have to elect the statutory share in Connecticut?

One hundred fifty days after the Probate Court mails the decree admitting the will to probate. Section 45a-436(c) requires a written notice of intent to take the statutory share, filed with the Probate Court where the estate is in settlement. A spouse who files nothing in that window is barred from the share.

Does the Connecticut statutory share reach joint accounts or life insurance?

No. Section 45a-436(a) measures the share against property passing under the will. Assets that move by survivorship, by beneficiary designation, or through a trust sit outside the will and outside the calculation. Connecticut writes no augmented-estate rule that pulls those transfers back into the share.

Is a Connecticut surviving spouse entitled to a set dollar allowance?

No. Section 45a-320(a) gives the Probate Court discretion to allow whatever amount it judges necessary for the support of the surviving spouse or family during settlement of the estate. Connecticut sets no cap, no minimum, and no inflation adjustment. The filing is Probate Court form PC-202, Petition for Support Allowance.

Does Connecticut have a homestead allowance for a surviving spouse?

No. Title 45a creates no probate homestead allowance and no fixed-dollar exempt-property allowance. The $250,000 homestead figure in Conn. Gen. Stat. § 52-352b(21) protects a living debtor's equity from execution and is not an amount paid out of an estate. What the family gets instead is the right to occupy the dwelling under § 45a-321(b).

Can a surviving spouse stay in the house in Connecticut?

Yes. Section 45a-321(b) allows the decedent's family to remain in the dwelling house the decedent occupied at death, and to occupy the land and buildings connected with it that the court considers necessary for their convenience and comfort, until the property is sold, distributed or otherwise disposed of according to law. Connecticut attaches no month limit to that right.

Can a Connecticut surviving spouse be cut out entirely?

Yes, in four situations. A written contract made before or after the marriage that gave the spouse something intended in lieu of the share defeats it under § 45a-436(f). Abandonment without sufficient cause bars both the statutory share and the intestate share under § 45a-436(g). Missing the 150-day deadline bars the election under § 45a-436(c). A final adjudication under the crimes listed in § 45a-447 blocks inheritance from the victim.

Related Guides

• Connecticut Intestate Succession: the spouse's share when there is no will, and the four tiers of § 45a-437.
• Connecticut Will Requirements: what makes the underlying will valid in the first place.
• Connecticut Will Contests: electing against a will and challenging a will are different proceedings.
• Connecticut Probate Timeline: where the 150-day election falls against the other deadlines.
• Connecticut Estate Tax Guide: the marital deduction and the Connecticut filing thresholds.
• Connecticut Executor Duties: the inventory and the fiduciary's role in setting out the share.
• Connecticut Creditor Claims: the debts that come off before the third is measured.
• Connecticut Debt Payment Priority: the § 45a-365 order in which an estate pays.
• Connecticut Probate Guide: how a Connecticut estate runs from application to closing.
• Connecticut Probate Courts: find the probate district that covers the decedent's town.

This guide is general information about Connecticut estates, not advice for your situation. Confirm anything that affects your estate with the Probate Court for the district where the decedent lived or a licensed Connecticut attorney.

Sources:

• Title: Conn. Gen. Stat. § 45a-436, Succession upon death of spouse. Statutory share. Publisher: Connecticut General Assembly. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_802b.htm#sec_45a-436
• Title: Conn. Gen. Stat. § 45a-320, Allowance for support of surviving spouse and family. Family car. Publisher: Connecticut General Assembly. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_802b.htm#sec_45a-320
• Title: Conn. Gen. Stat. § 45a-321, Custody of real property. Products and income of real property. Family may occupy homestead. Publisher: Connecticut General Assembly. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_802b.htm#sec_45a-321
• Title: Conn. Gen. Stat. § 45a-435, Personal property that may be set out to spouse from insolvent estate. Publisher: Connecticut General Assembly. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_802b.htm#sec_45a-435
• Title: Conn. Gen. Stat. § 45a-437, Intestate succession. Distribution to spouse. Publisher: Connecticut General Assembly. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_802b.htm#sec_45a-437
• Title: Conn. Gen. Stat. § 45a-273, Settlement of small estates without probate of will or letters of administration. Publisher: Connecticut General Assembly. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_802b.htm#sec_45a-273
• Title: Conn. Gen. Stat. § 45a-365, Order of payment of claims, expenses and taxes. Publisher: Connecticut General Assembly. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_802b.htm#sec_45a-365
• Title: Conn. Gen. Stat. § 45a-447, Person adjudged guilty of certain crimes or found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect ineligible to inherit from or receive property or insurance or annuity proceeds as beneficiary of victim. Publisher: Connecticut General Assembly. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_802b.htm#sec_45a-447
• Title: Conn. Gen. Stat. § 45a-257a, Failure of testator to provide for surviving spouse who married testator after execution of will. Determination of share of estate. Publisher: Connecticut General Assembly. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_802a.htm#sec_45a-257a
• Title: Conn. Gen. Stat. § 45a-257c, Marriage of testator terminated after execution of will. Provisions of will re former spouse revoked. Publisher: Connecticut General Assembly. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_802a.htm#sec_45a-257c
• Title: Conn. Gen. Stat. § 46b-36d, Content of premarital agreement. Publisher: Connecticut General Assembly. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_815e.htm#sec_46b-36d
• Title: Conn. Gen. Stat. § 46b-36g, Enforcement of premarital agreement. Publisher: Connecticut General Assembly. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_815e.htm#sec_46b-36g
• Title: Conn. Gen. Stat. § 52-352b, Exempt property. Publisher: Connecticut General Assembly. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_906.htm#sec_52-352b
• Title: Form PC-202, Petition for Support Allowance. Publisher: Connecticut Probate Courts. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://www.ctprobate.gov/Forms/PC-202.pdf
• Title: Raised Bill No. 956, An Act Concerning a Surviving Spouse's Statutory Share, January Session 2017. Publisher: Connecticut General Assembly. Publication Date: 2017. URL: https://www.cga.ct.gov/2017/TOB/S/2017SB-00956-R00-SB.htm

It is not legal advice.