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Kansas Intestate Succession
Pillar GuideKansas26 min read

Kansas Intestate Succession

Who inherits without a will in Kansas: the K.S.A. 59-504 spouse share, the sixth-degree limit on heirs, and the 120-hour rule in chapter 58.

By Settled Editorial

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Many estates can avoid probate entirely. Assets with beneficiary designations, joint accounts, and trust assets may pass automatically without court involvement.

Kansas answers the no-will question in two sentences of statute. K.S.A. 59-504 gives a surviving spouse the entire estate where the person who died left no child and no issue of a previously deceased child. Where a spouse and descendants both survive, the spouse takes one-half and the descendants take the other half.

Four things about that answer catch people who read a generic summary first. Kansas sets no dollar figure anywhere in the spouse's share. Kansas never asks whose children the children are. Kansas does apply a 120-hour survival requirement, and it lives in chapter 58 rather than in the probate code. And Kansas draws no line between half blood and whole blood at all.

Every rule below was read on September 8, 2026 at the Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes, the official publisher of the Kansas Statutes Annotated. Section numbers sit beside each rule so you can check them yourself.

This page answers the distribution question, meaning who gets what. For how an estate is opened and closed, read the Kansas probate process.

What These Rules Reach

Dying without a will is called dying intestate. K.S.A. 59-502 passes the property of a Kansas resident who dies intestate at the time of death, subject to homestead rights, the allowances to a spouse and minor children under K.S.A. 59-403, reasonable funeral expenses, expenses of last sickness, costs of administration, taxes and debts. Title moves at the moment of death. The court proceeding confirms who already owns what.

These rules reach probate property only. Anything that already names its own taker passes outside the estate:

  • real estate under a transfer-on-death deed recorded before the death (K.S.A. 59-3501 and K.S.A. 59-3502)
  • a vehicle titled in transfer-on-death form (K.S.A. 59-3508)
  • payable-on-death bank accounts (K.S.A. 9-1215)
  • life insurance and retirement accounts with a living named beneficiary
  • property held in joint tenancy with right of survivorship
  • anything already titled in a trust

Kansas defaults to tenancy in common, even between spouses

This is the assumption that most often breaks an intestate estate plan. K.S.A. 58-501 says that real or personal property granted or devised to two or more people, "including a grant or devise to a husband and wife," creates a tenancy in common unless the language used makes it clear that a joint tenancy was intended. Survivorship is the exception in Kansas, not the default.

So a deed naming both spouses is not automatically a survivorship deed. Where the granting clause does not say so, half the house is probate property and passes under K.S.A. 59-504. Read the deed before assuming the house is already handled.

A will can exist and still leave the estate intestate

Two Kansas rules turn a will estate into an intestate one, and neither sits in the intestacy article. The first is a deadline, and Kansas closes that door faster than most states. K.S.A. 59-617 says no will of a testator who died a Kansas resident is effectual to pass property unless a petition for probate of that will is filed within six months after the death. Miss it, and the property passes under the sections on this page even though a signed will sits in a drawer.

Two provisions soften that. K.S.A. 59-618a lets anyone holding the will file it, or a copy of it, with the district court of the decedent's last residence inside the six months, along with an affidavit naming the heirs, legatees and devisees, giving the death date and place, and stating that each named person received a copy. A will filed that way may be admitted to probate after the six months run. K.S.A. 59-618 then makes a person who knowingly withholds a will for more than six months liable for reasonable attorney fees, costs and damages to beneficiaries who did not know about it, and lets such a beneficiary petition within 90 days of learning of the will. That is a civil liability. The section names no crime.

The second route is revocation. K.S.A. 59-610 revokes a Kansas will outright if after making it the testator marries and has a child, by birth or adoption. Read that as written, because the two conditions run together: marrying alone does not revoke a Kansas will under this section, and neither does a birth alone. The same section revokes only the provisions in favor of a divorced spouse when the testator later divorces, leaving the rest of the will standing. A will revoked under the first sentence passes nothing, so the estate divides by the shares below.

Passing outside probate does not mean passing free of claims

K.S.A. 9-1215 keeps a payable-on-death account out of the probate code, and the beneficiary's interest does not vest until the owner dies. Two written notices can reach the money first under subsection (d). One is a claim from the Department for Children and Families under K.S.A. 39-709 for medical assistance paid on the deceased owner, which the bank pays to the extent of that assistance. The other is written notice that a surviving spouse intends to claim an elective share, which sends the balance to the court under K.S.A. 59-6a214. The beneficiary receives what remains.

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The Surviving Spouse's Share

K.S.A. 59-504 runs two branches. Read them in order and stop at the first one that fits.

Family situationSpouse receivesThe rest passes toStatute
No child, and no issue of a previously deceased childAll of the propertyNobody elseK.S.A. 59-504
A child, children, or issue of a previously deceased childOne-half of the propertyThe children and issueK.S.A. 59-504 and 59-506

Two features of that table are worth sitting with, because both differ from what a reader arrives expecting.

Kansas states no dollar amount. There is no first $50,000 to the spouse, no inflation-adjusted figure, and no table keyed to the year of death. A page that gives Kansas a first-dollar amount has copied a Uniform Probate Code state.

Kansas also never asks whose children they are. A blended family and an intact family divide the same way. A spouse of two years shares one-half with a child from a marriage that ended thirty years earlier, and a spouse of forty years shares one-half with the couple's own children. Many states run a separate branch for stepchildren. Kansas does not.

Work the numbers. A man dies intestate leaving a wife, a daughter from his first marriage, and a $600,000 estate after debts and the statutory allowances. His wife takes $300,000. His daughter takes $300,000. Remove the daughter, with no other descendant, and the wife takes the whole $600,000, even though his parents and his brother are living.

That last point catches childless couples. Kansas parents and siblings take nothing where a spouse survives. They enter the picture only when no spouse and no descendant survives.

K.S.A. 59-505 protects real estate the spouse never consented to give away

Section 59-505 sits beside the share and answers a different question. It entitles a surviving spouse to one-half of all real estate the person who died was seized or possessed of at any time during the marriage and to the disposition of which the survivor did not consent in writing, by a will, or by electing to take under a will. Real estate sold on execution, at judicial sale, or taken by other legal proceeding is carved out, and so is real estate conveyed while the spouse was a nonresident who had never lived in Kansas during the marriage.

The annotation the revisor prints under section 59-505 puts it plainly: the statute protects the interest in real property during the marital relation that the spouse has a right to inherit under K.S.A. 59-504 (Jackson v. Lee, 193 Kan. 40, 392 P.2d 92). It is a backstop against lifetime transfers made without spousal consent, and section 59-505 says the entitlement counts as part of the surviving spouse's property under K.S.A. 59-6a207. Where the family finds that the person who died deeded land away during the marriage and the surviving spouse never signed, that is a question for a Kansas lawyer rather than for arithmetic.

The intestate one-half is a separate question from what a spouse can claim against a will. For that, read what the surviving spouse can claim instead. To see the shares this statute produces for a particular family rather than in the abstract, run the facts through the Kansas inheritance calculator.

How the Children's Half Divides

K.S.A. 59-506 sets the shares at the children's generation. Where a spouse survives, one-half passes to the children and to the living issue of a previously deceased child, in equal shares, and the issue of a deceased child collectively take only the share their parent would have taken. Where no spouse survives, the whole estate divides the same way.

That collective clause is the whole rule. Each dead child's share follows that child's own line and is not pooled with anyone else's.

Work an example. A widow dies intestate leaving three children. One son survives. One daughter died leaving a single child. The other daughter died leaving three children. The estate splits into three shares at the children's generation. The surviving son takes one-third. The only child of the first deceased daughter takes her mother's whole one-third. The three children of the second deceased daughter divide their mother's one-third, taking one-ninth each. A pooling rule would give all four grandchildren one-sixth apiece, so the difference is real money.

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When No Spouse and No Descendant Survives

K.S.A. 59-507 gives the whole estate to a surviving parent, or in equal shares to surviving parents. Where the person who died was adopted, it passes to the adoptive parent or parents in the same way, including a birth parent who is the spouse of an adoptive parent.

K.S.A. 59-508 then does something unusual, and it pays to read the mechanic rather than to look for a list of classes. Where no spouse, child, issue or parent survives, the shares that each parent would have taken pass to the heirs of that parent, excluding their spouses, exactly as if each parent had owned half the property and died intestate on the day the person died. Where one parent left no such heirs, the whole estate passes to the living heirs of the other parent.

So Kansas does not print a ladder of grandparents, aunts and cousins. It runs each parent's own intestacy and lets that recursion find the relatives. Siblings, nieces, nephews, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins all arrive through that door.

The sixth degree is a real cutoff

K.S.A. 59-509 counts each generation in the ascending or descending line as one degree, and no property passes, except by lineal descent, to anyone further removed from the person who died than the sixth degree.

Count it out. A grandparent is two degrees, counting one generation to the parent and one more to the grandparent, and a sibling is also two, counting up to the shared parent and back down. A niece, a nephew, an aunt and an uncle are three. A first cousin is four. A second cousin is six and still inherits. A third cousin is eight and takes nothing. Lineal descendants are exempt from the cutoff, so a great-great-grandchild inherits no matter how many generations sit between.

Who Counts as a Child

K.S.A. 59-501 defines the terms the rest of the article uses. "Children" means biological children, including a posthumous child, children adopted as provided by law, and children whose parentage is or has been determined under the Kansas parentage act or prior law. "Issue" includes adopted children of deceased children or issue.

Adoption. K.S.A. 59-2118(b) gives an adopted person the same personal and property rights as a birth child of the adoptive parent. On adoption, the birth parents lose the right to inherit from or through the child, except a birth parent who is the spouse of the adopting parent. Read the last sentence twice, because it runs the other way: an adoption does not terminate the child's right to inherit from or through a birth parent. A Kansas adoptee can stand in line in two families.

Parentage. K.S.A. 23-2208 lists when a man is presumed to be the father, and the presumptions matter to an estate where nobody married. They include birth during a marriage or within 300 days of its end, notorious or written recognition of paternity, and genetic test results showing a probability of 97 percent or greater. A presumption falls only to clear and convincing evidence, to a decree establishing another man's paternity, or to a weightier conflicting presumption. Where two presumptions collide, the court picks the one founded on the weightier considerations of policy and logic, including the best interests of the child.

The 120-Hour Rule Lives in Chapter 58

Kansas has a survival requirement, and copying a "no survival requirement" sentence from another state's page publishes the opposite of the law here.

K.S.A. 58-709 says that where the devolution of property, the right to elect an interest, or the right to exempt property, homestead or family allowance depends on surviving another person, someone not established by clear and convincing evidence to have survived by 120 hours is deemed to have died first. The standard of proof is doing work. Silence is not enough; the heir's side has to prove the five days.

Two limits ride with it. The section does not apply where applying it would hand the estate to the state. And K.S.A. 58-713 switches the act off where a governing instrument deals explicitly with simultaneous deaths, expressly sets its own survival period or waives one, where a 120-hour requirement would break the rule against perpetuities, or where applying it across several instruments would cause an unintended failure or duplication.

One more path leads here. Where a person kills a spouse and then takes their own life, K.S.A. 59-513(b) disposes of both estates as if the deaths were simultaneous under K.S.A. 58-708 through 58-718.

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Kansas Has No Half-Blood Rule

Some states cut a half sibling out of property the person who died inherited from an ancestor the two did not share. Kansas has no such statute. Not one of the 862 section headings in its probate chapter mentions blood, and inside the intestacy article the word appears in a single place, K.S.A. 59-509, where it describes how degrees of relationship get counted. Sections 59-501 through 59-514 draw no whole-blood, half-blood or ancestral-property distinction anywhere.

What does shape the answer is the structure of K.S.A. 59-508 described above. Because the statute splits the estate into a notional half for each parent and passes each half to that parent's own heirs, a relative connected to the person who died through only one parent stands in line for that parent's half. That is a reading of a mechanic rather than a stated rule, so treat it as a question to put to a Kansas lawyer whenever a half sibling is in line.

A Lifetime Gift Counts Only as an Advancement

K.S.A. 59-510 charges property given by an intestate decedent "by way of an advancement" against the recipient's distributive share. Where the advancement exceeds what that person would have taken, the recipient refunds nothing. Where the recipient dies before the person who made the gift, leaving heirs who take, the advancement is allowed against them in the same way.

K.S.A. 59-2248 puts every advancement question to the court at the time of settlement, requires each one to be specified in the decree assigning the estate, and lets the court order an appraisement to value the residue. So a family argument about a lifetime gift is resolved on the record in the probate case, not around a table.

The Slayer Rule Turns on a Conviction

K.S.A. 59-513(a) bars a person convicted of feloniously killing, or procuring the killing of, another person from taking any part of that person's estate. The bar reaches inheritance, a will, intestate succession, survivorship as a joint tenant, a beneficiary designation on real or personal property, and a beneficiary interest under a trust.

The trigger is a conviction. Some states disinherit a killer on a civil finding by a preponderance of the evidence. Kansas does not read that way, so a family watching a prosecution that ends without a conviction has no bar to invoke under this section.

A 2023 amendment added the interim tool. Under K.S.A. 59-513(c) the court, on its own motion or on written request, may prohibit the sale, distribution, spending or use of the asset by someone arrested for or charged with the killing. The order can issue ex parte on a showing of filed charges and stays in force until the court modifies or terminates it. The court terminates it on dismissal of all charges, acquittal on all charges, conviction or other disposition, or expungement of the arrest records.

Turning Down an Inheritance

An heir who does not want a share can disclaim it. K.S.A. 59-2291 lets an heir, a next of kin or a person succeeding to a disclaimed interest file a written instrument that describes the property, declares the disclaimer and its extent, and carries the disclaimant's signature and acknowledgment.

K.S.A. 59-2292 sets the deadline at nine months after the latest of three dates: the death, the date the taker becomes finally ascertained with an interest fixed in both quality and quantity, or the date the taker turns 21. File and record it in the district court where the estate is or may be administered, then give notice by personal delivery or certified mail to the transferor, the personal representative, or whoever holds legal title.

One limit is easy to miss and expensive to learn late. Under K.S.A. 59-2291(c), a disclaimer is valid only so far as it does not conflict with K.S.A. 39-709, the medical assistance statute.

Kansas Land Owned by Someone Who Lived Elsewhere

K.S.A. 59-806(b) splits the question by asset type. Kansas real estate owned by an intestate person who lived in another state passes by Kansas intestate succession, exactly as though that person had been a Kansas resident. That same person's personal property passes under the law of the state where they lived.

Kansas farm ground and mineral interests sit in a lot of out-of-state estates, so this line decides more Kansas cases than its length suggests.

If No Heir Turns Up

Kansas puts one class in front of the state. Under K.S.A. 59-514, where nobody qualifies as an heir under K.S.A. 59-503 through 59-513, the property passes to the living heirs of the last spouse who died before the person who died. Only where no such heir exists does the estate escheat to Kansas.

That rule almost never appears on a summary page, and it can carry an estate to a stepfamily nobody thought to look for.

K.S.A. 59-901 sets out the machinery. An intestate estate with no known heirs is administered like any other, the administrator converts personal property to money as quickly as possible and collects rents and income, and if nobody claims as an heir, devisee or legatee within six months after the administrator's appointment, the administrator sells the real estate, closes the estate and remits the net proceeds to the state treasurer for deposit in the escheat proceeds suspense fund.

Getting an Intestate Kansas Estate Settled

The statutes name the heirs. Somebody still has to collect the property and hand it over.

With no will there is no nominated executor, so the district court appoints an administrator. That role carries the same duties covered in serving as administrator in Kansas: take control of the assets, give notice to creditors, pay allowed claims, and distribute the statutory shares.

Not every intestate estate needs a full administration. Two shorter routes exist, and each has its own number.

The small estates affidavit, K.S.A. 59-1507b. Where the total assets of a Kansas resident's estate subject to probate do not exceed $75,000 in value, personal property transferable to the estate goes to a person claiming to be a successor on an affidavit showing entitlement, with no letters of administration or letters testamentary. A "successor" means someone entitled to the property by will or by intestate succession, or nominated as personal representative under a will. The receipt discharges the bank or other holder as fully as payment to an administrator would.

Determination of descent, K.S.A. 59-2250 and 59-2251. Where a person has been dead more than six months, no will has been filed under K.S.A. 59-618a within six months of the death, and no petition for probate or administration has been filed, an interested person may petition the district court to determine how the property descends. K.S.A. 59-2251 has the sentence that matters for old titles: the decree assigns the property under the law of intestate succession as it stood on the date of death, not under today's law. A 1974 death is settled on 1974 law.

If you are reading this because you want to control the outcome rather than accept the statute's answer, Kansas will requirements covers signing, witnesses and what makes a Kansas will hold up.

When to Talk to a Kansas Lawyer

Many Kansas intestate estates divide straight off K.S.A. 59-504. Bring in a licensed Kansas attorney when:

  • the person who died deeded real estate away during the marriage and the surviving spouse never signed a consent
  • a deed names two owners and does not clearly say joint tenancy, so half the property may be in the estate
  • no spouse and no descendant survives, and the K.S.A. 59-508 split has to run through both parents' families
  • a half sibling, a stepfamily or a relative near the sixth degree is in line
  • paternity was never established in writing or by a court
  • two family members died close together and the 120-hour proof is contested
  • a homicide charge is pending against someone in line to inherit
  • the estate holds Kansas land and the person who died lived in another state

This page organizes the statutory shares and the questions worth asking. Confirm anything that decides a particular estate with the district court handling it or with a licensed Kansas attorney.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who inherits if there is no will in Kansas?

K.S.A. 59-504 gives the whole estate to a surviving spouse when the person who died left no child and no issue of a deceased child. Where a spouse and descendants both survive, the spouse takes one-half and the descendants take the other half under K.S.A. 59-506. With no spouse, the descendants take everything. With no spouse and no descendants, the estate goes to surviving parents under K.S.A. 59-507, and then out to each parent's own heirs under K.S.A. 59-508.

Does the surviving spouse get everything in Kansas?

Only where no descendant survives. K.S.A. 59-504 gives a spouse the entire estate when the person who died left no child and no issue of a previously deceased child, and surviving parents and siblings take nothing in that case. The moment one child or one grandchild of a deceased child survives, the spouse drops to one-half. Kansas states both shares as fractions and sets no dollar figure at any point.

Does it matter whose children they are in Kansas?

No. K.S.A. 59-504 and K.S.A. 59-506 split the estate one-half to the spouse and one-half to the children without asking whether the children are also the surviving spouse's. A long first marriage and a short second marriage produce the same fractions. Many states run a different share for stepchildren, so a summary written from the Uniform Probate Code gets Kansas wrong on this point.

Does Kansas have a 120-hour survival rule?

Yes, and it sits outside the probate code. K.S.A. 58-709 treats an heir who is not established by clear and convincing evidence to have outlived the person who died by 120 hours as having died first, and it reaches the right to exempt property, homestead and the family allowance as well as the intestate share. K.S.A. 58-713 lists the exceptions, and the rule does not apply where it would push the estate to the state.

Do half brothers and half sisters inherit less in Kansas?

Kansas has no half-blood statute. Sections 59-501 through 59-514 draw no whole-blood or ancestral-property distinction anywhere. What does shape the answer is the structure of K.S.A. 59-508, which splits an estate into a notional half for each parent and passes each half to that parent's own heirs, so a relative connected through one parent stands in line for that parent's half. Put that question to a Kansas lawyer before dividing anything.

Can an estate become intestate in Kansas even though there is a will?

Yes, by two routes. K.S.A. 59-617 makes a will of a Kansas resident ineffective to pass property unless a petition for its probate is filed within six months of the death, so the estate then passes under the intestate sections instead. K.S.A. 59-618a is the way out of that one: file the will or a copy with the district court inside the six months, with an affidavit naming the heirs, legatees and devisees, and it may still be admitted to probate later. The second route is K.S.A. 59-610, which revokes a Kansas will outright if after making it the testator marries and has a child, by birth or adoption.

What happens if no relative can be found in Kansas?

One class comes before the state. K.S.A. 59-514 sends the estate to the living heirs of the last spouse who died before the person who died, and only where no such heir exists does the property escheat to Kansas. Under K.S.A. 59-901 the administrator sells the real estate and closes the estate if nobody claims as an heir within six months of appointment, and the net proceeds go to the state treasurer for the escheat proceeds suspense fund.

Sources:

It is not legal advice.

Information current as of September 8, 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 Kansas can change. Consult with a qualified attorney for advice specific to your situation. Full disclaimer.

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