Maine Family Allowance

Who receives payments

When the spouse is living, the allowance is payable to the spouse for the family members described by the statute. Payments may be divided when a minor or dependent child lives elsewhere. Without a living spouse, payments go to the children or their caregivers. The right to unpaid allowance ends when the person entitled to it dies.

Duration and estate resources

The allowance supports maintenance during administration. The one-year ceiling in section 2-404 applies when the estate cannot discharge allowed claims. That one-year ceiling is conditional. Available estate assets and the governing determination still matter.

Relationship to inheritance and creditors

The allowance ordinarily adds to a will, intestate or elective share, subject to an express will provision substituting a benefit. It follows administration costs, reasonable funeral expenses and homestead allowance in the statutory priority order. The Maine debt-payment guide covers estate claims. 18-C M.R.S. 3-805.

The separate Maine exempt-property allowance concerns personal property. The surviving-spouse guide places the allowances alongside inheritance rights.

Section 2-405 permits an aggrieved interested person or the personal representative to seek court relief about a determination, payment or failure to act. A probate attorney can explain that process for an individual estate.

Read the determination and payment together

Section 2-405 allows the personal representative to determine a family allowance as a lump sum within the adjusted ceiling or as periodic installments within the adjusted monthly ceiling for one year. The inflation-adjusted limit is tied to the applicable year of death under section 1-108. A court determination can change the amount. The personal representative's ceiling is a limit on that determination, rather than a statement that the estate owes every eligible family the same sum. 18-C M.R.S. 2-405.

For a reader comparing a proposed payment with the published table, three facts matter: the year of death, whether the proposal is a lump sum or periodic payments, and whether a court has made a different determination. A printed statutory base amount and the adjusted table amount can both be accurate while describing different things. Section 1-108 supplies the annual adjustment and says how to derive the periodic installment from the adjusted lump sum. Using the filing year in place of the death year can select the wrong table entry.

Keep eligibility separate from where payment goes

Section 2-404 first describes the family members entitled to support and then explains how the allowance is paid. Minor children whom the decedent was obligated to support and children the decedent was actually supporting are both addressed. The description is not limited to a single household arrangement. The statute also deals with a spouse who is living, children living elsewhere, and payments when there is no surviving spouse. Those payment provisions should be read with the eligibility language rather than used as a substitute for it. 18-C M.R.S. 2-404.

The right to an unpaid allowance ends with the death of the person entitled to it. That rule concerns an unpaid right. It is a separate question from the estate-resource limit on duration and from the personal representative's authority to determine an amount. Keeping those rules separate avoids treating every change in family circumstances as though it had the same consequence under the statute.

Understand the conditional one-year limit

The one-year language in section 2-404 is attached to the condition that the estate is inadequate to discharge allowed claims. This condition does not extend the separate one-year limit on the representative's own periodic-payment determination under section 2-405. The court may determine a different allowance under that section. The allowance is for reasonable maintenance during administration, subject to the estate, the statutory terms and the governing determination.

Two estates can have different resources and different determinations even when both involve a surviving spouse. A reader trying to understand the duration of payments needs to know whether allowed claims can be discharged and what allowance has been determined. The calendar alone does not answer either question. A disputed amount, payment or failure to act can be brought to the court under section 2-405 by the personal representative or an aggrieved interested person.

Organize the estate's payment questions

Records of the date of death, family support circumstances, a proposed payment schedule, available estate assets and allowed claims can help identify the questions the statutes address. A will provision expressly substituting a benefit for the allowance also matters. These records organize an individual estate's facts; they are not a statement that every court requires the same filing package. A probate attorney can explain how a proposed allowance and the court process relate to those facts.

The payment order remains relevant when an estate has competing expenses. Section 3-805 places administration costs, reasonable funeral expenses and the homestead allowance ahead of the family allowance. Exempt property follows it in that order. Priority does not create additional estate assets, and the existence of a priority does not establish that every claim will be paid in full. The Maine probate guide explains the surrounding administration process. 18-C M.R.S. 3-805.

Settled Estate is not a law firm. This page provides legal information. It is not legal advice.