Skip to main content
Rhode Island Intestate Succession
Pillar GuideRhode Island23 min read

Rhode Island Intestate Succession

Who inherits without a will in Rhode Island: the spouse's life estate in the real estate, the $150,000 set-off, and the $50,000 personalty rule.

By Settled Editorial

Rhode Island runs two different rules on one intestate estate. Real estate descends to the decedent's kindred under R.I. Gen. Laws § 33-1-1, subject to a life estate that passes to the surviving spouse under § 33-1-5. Personal property is distributed under § 33-1-10, where the spouse takes a fixed dollar sum plus a fraction of the surplus.

That split is why a single "the spouse gets X" figure is always wrong in Rhode Island. This guide works through chapter 33-1 of the Rhode Island General Laws, the chapter 33-25 sections that carry the spouse's life estate, and the survival, adoption and slayer rules layered on top. An intestate estate still needs a court appointment before anyone is paid, so read how a Rhode Island probate case runs once you know who the heirs are.

Two Statutes, Two Different Measures

Most states answer "what does the surviving spouse inherit" with one fraction of one estate. Rhode Island answers it twice, and the two answers do not resemble each other.

  • Real estate. The spouse takes a life estate under § 33-1-5, which is the right to use and occupy the property for life. The spouse does not take the fee. The fee descends to the children, parents or other kindred under §§ 33-1-1 and 33-1-2, and both of those sections are expressly made subject to § 33-1-5 and § 33-1-6.
  • Personal property. Section 33-1-10 distributes the surplus of chattels and personal estate after just debts, funeral charges and the expenses of settling the estate. With no issue the spouse takes $50,000 plus half the remainder. With issue the spouse takes half and no dollar base at all.

Sort the probate estate into those two piles before anyone runs a number. A page that quotes one Rhode Island spouse's share is quoting a rule that does not exist.

Need help with your probate case?

Answer a few questions to see whether Rhode Island probate is required and which process applies.

Take the 2-minute assessment

What Dying Without a Will Means Here

Section 33-1-12(a) reaches any part of a decedent's estate not effectively disposed of by will. A person can die fully intestate with no will at all, or partly intestate because a valid will left something out, and the leftover follows chapter 33-1 either way.

Rhode Island also allows a will to disinherit without giving anything away. Under § 33-1-12(b) a decedent may expressly exclude or limit the right of an individual or a class to succeed to intestate property, and the excluded share then passes as if that person had disclaimed it.

Probate is municipal. Rhode Island has no county probate court. Section 8-9-9 gives every probate court jurisdiction "in the town or city in which it is established" over the probate of wills and the granting of administration, so the case belongs to the city or town where the decedent lived. Under § 33-8-8 administration goes first to the surviving spouse, one or more of the next of kin, or the spouse jointly with next of kin, provided they are suitable and competent. If they neglect to apply within 30 days of the death, refuse the trust or are unsuitable, the court may grant administration to any suitable person on the petition of a party in interest.

What Passes Outside These Rules

Intestate succession reaches the probate estate only. These transfers happen without it:

  • Property held in joint tenancy with right of survivorship. Read the deed first. Section 34-3-1 presumes a tenancy in common for any conveyance to two or more people unless the instrument declares a joint tenancy, names the survivors, or manifestly shows that intent.
  • Property a married couple holds as tenants by the entirety.
  • Assets titled in a living trust.
  • Life insurance, IRAs and retirement plans with a living named beneficiary.
  • Payable-on-death and transfer-on-death registered accounts and securities.

Rhode Island has no transfer-on-death deed for real estate. Title 34 of the General Laws carries chapters on tenancy in common, estates in real property, conveyances and recording, and none of them creates a beneficiary deed. A house the decedent owned alone runs through probate, subject to the surviving spouse's life estate.

Real Estate: the Life Estate (§ 33-1-5)

Section 33-1-5 is one sentence. Whenever the intestate dies leaving a surviving spouse, the real estate of the intestate descends and passes to that spouse for his or her natural life.

Section 33-25-2 states the same right in wider terms and covers testate estates too. It reaches real estate the decedent owned in fee simple at death, subject to any encumbrances existing at death, and it does not touch real estate the decedent conveyed away during life if the conveyance was recorded in the city or town land evidence records before the death.

Two features of chapter 33-25 decide real cases. Section 33-25-3 makes the life estate take effect even where the will provides otherwise, except as § 33-25-4 allows, and gives it precedence over the claims of the decedent's creditors except claims secured by a lien or other encumbrance on the real estate. Section 33-25-5 lets the court with jurisdiction, on the surviving spouse's petition and after notice, determine the present value of the life estate and order that cash paid out of the proceeds in lieu of the life estate when the property is sold by court order or taken under authority of law.

Chapter 33-25 is still titled "Dower and Curtesy," and that title misleads people every year. Section 33-25-1 abolished both: the widow's right to common law or statutory dower and the husband's right to common law or statutory curtesy are gone. Section 33-25-6 applies the chapter to dower and curtesy rights as they existed before April 17, 1978, and makes it fully effective for the estate of every person dying after that date. The life estate replaced them. Never describe a Rhode Island surviving spouse as taking dower.

The $150,000 Set-Off in Fee (§ 33-1-6)

On top of the life estate, the probate court may set off real estate to the surviving spouse in fee. Section 33-1-6 is discretionary and it runs on a clock:

  • The petition must be filed within six months from the date of the first publication of notice of the qualification of the administrator. That anchor is the publication, not the date of death.
  • The court may set off Rhode Island real estate of the intestate up to $150,000 in value over and above all encumbrances, and only if the property is not required to pay the intestate's debts.
  • Where the real estate is a single parcel worth more than $150,000 over encumbrances and the court finds it cannot be set off whole or by partition without unreasonable loss of value, the court may order it sold and set off $150,000 of the proceeds instead. Any surplus proceeds are then treated as real estate for descent and distribution.
  • Title does not pass for the purpose of a conveyance by the surviving spouse until a certified copy of the decree is recorded in the land evidence records of the city or town where the land sits.
  • The set-off is in addition to the § 33-1-5 life estate, in the words of the statute itself.

The court with jurisdiction of the estate handles the petition for a Rhode Island resident. For a nonresident decedent, the petition goes to the probate court of any city or town where the real estate sits.

Who Takes the Fee

Subject to the life estate and the set-off, § 33-1-1 sends the real estate down in equal portions:

  1. Children or their descendants, if there are any.
  2. Parents in equal shares, or the surviving parent, if there are no children or their descendants.
  3. Brothers and sisters and their descendants, if there is no parent.

If none of those survive, § 33-1-2 divides the inheritance into equal moieties between the paternal and the maternal kindred, and each half runs the same ladder: grandparents in equal shares, then uncles and aunts or their descendants by representation, then great grandparents, then great uncles and great aunts or their descendants by representation, and so on without end to the nearest lineal ancestors and their descendants.

Section 33-1-3 closes the scheme, and it is unusual. If one side has no kindred, the whole goes to the other side. If neither side has kindred, the whole goes to the surviving spouse. If the spouse did not survive, it goes to the spouse's kindred, in the same course as if the spouse had survived the intestate and then died owning the estate. Rhode Island reaches into a predeceased spouse's family before it gives up on finding a taker.

Two mechanics govern the ladder. Section 33-1-7 gives the descendants of a deceased person whatever that person would have inherited had they survived, subject to the express provisions of the canons of descent and distribution. Section 33-1-4 then limits who can be in the line at all: no right in the inheritance accrues to anyone other than the children of the intestate unless that person is in being and capable in law to take as an heir at the time of the intestate's death.

Personal Property: the Surplus Rule (§ 33-1-10)

Section 33-1-10 works on the surplus, not the gross estate. Pay just debts, funeral charges and the expenses of settling the estate first, then distribute what is left by order of the probate court granting administration:

Who survivesThe spouse takesThe rest
Spouse, no issue$50,000 from the surplus plus one half of the remainderThe residue goes down the § 33-1-1 ladder
Spouse and issueOne half of the surplus, with no dollar baseThe residue goes down the § 33-1-1 ladder
No spouseNothingThe whole surplus goes down the § 33-1-1 ladder

Subsection (3) sends that residue among the heirs of the intestate "in the same manner real estates descend and pass by this chapter, but without having any respect to the life estate and discretionary allowance provided by §§ 33-1-5 and 33-1-6." So the spouse's real-property rights do not follow the money.

Work an estate with a surplus of $120,000. If the decedent left no issue, the spouse takes $50,000 plus half of the remaining $70,000, which is $85,000, and $35,000 runs down the ladder. If the decedent left two children, the spouse takes $60,000 flat, the $50,000 base disappears, and the children split $60,000. The presence of a child costs that spouse $25,000 of personal property. The real-estate answer does not move either way: the spouse holds a life estate, and the fee goes to the children instead of to the parents or siblings.

The $50,000 has not moved since 1957. The History of Section line under § 33-1-10 ends at R.P.L. 1957, ch. 155, § 2, the statute carries no cost-of-living clause, and no adjustment is scheduled. The same number applies to a 1980 death and a 2026 death.

Rules That Change the Answer

An heir must outlive the decedent by 120 hours

Under § 33-1-13, an individual who fails to survive the decedent by 120 hours is treated as having predeceased for homestead allowance, exempt property and intestate succession. If clear and convincing evidence does not establish that a would-be heir survived by 120 hours, that person is treated as failing to survive. The section is not applied where doing so would push the intestate estate into escheat to the state.

Where title depends on priority of death and there is no sufficient evidence that two people died otherwise than simultaneously, § 33-2-2 disposes of each person's property as if that person had survived. Section 33-2-1 lets chapter 33-2 be cited as the Uniform Simultaneous Death Act. For an heir in an intestate estate, the 120-hour test in § 33-1-13 is the operative one.

An advancement counts only if somebody wrote it down

A lifetime gift reduces an heir's share only on paper. Section 33-1-11(a) treats a gift as an advancement only if the decedent declared it in a contemporaneous writing, or the heir acknowledged it in writing, or that writing otherwise shows the gift is to be taken into account. Advanced property is valued at the earlier of the heir taking possession or enjoyment and the decedent's death. If the recipient dies first, the gift is ignored unless the decedent's contemporaneous writing says otherwise. Under subsection (d), a debt owed to the decedent is charged against nobody but the debtor, and it drops out entirely if the debtor predeceases.

A Rhode Island adopted child still inherits from the birth family

This is where Rhode Island inverts the usual answer. Section 15-7-16 makes a lawfully adopted child the child of the adoptive parents for inheritance in both directions, "except as provided in § 15-7-17." Section 15-7-17 is that exception, and it says granting the adoption "will not deprive an adopted child of the right to inherit from and through his or her natural parents in the same manner as all other natural children." For an adopted child born out of wedlock, the right to inherit from the natural parents runs through § 33-1-8.

Read § 15-7-16 alone and the answer comes out backwards. Two limits belong with it. Under § 15-7-16(b), a child adopted by a blood relative inherits from that relative only as an adopted child and not by virtue of the blood relationship, which stops a double share. And § 15-7-17 protects an administrator, executor or trustee who carries out lawful duties without knowledge of the adopted child from liability to that child.

Parentage does not turn on marriage

Section 33-1-8 makes a child born out of wedlock capable of inheriting and transmitting inheritance on the part of both mother and father in the same way as a child born in lawful wedlock. A child whose parents later lawfully intermarry and acknowledge the child is deemed legitimate.

A slayer takes nothing

Chapter 33-1.1 governs the disposition of property of a person killed by another. Section 33-1.1-2 bars the slayer and anyone claiming through the slayer from acquiring any property or receiving any benefit because of the decedent's death. Section 33-1.1-3 then deems the slayer to have predeceased the decedent as to property that would have passed under the statutes of descent and distribution or by statutory right as surviving spouse. The chapter also reaches wills, tenancy by the entirety, joint tenancy, powers of appointment and insurance proceeds.

An heir can refuse the share

Chapter 34-5 of Title 34 governs disclaimers. Section 34-5-5 requires a disclaimer of a present interest to be executed and filed no later than nine months after the death of the deceased owner for a testamentary disposition, or nine months after the effective date of the instrument for a nontestamentary one. A surviving joint tenant or tenant by the entirety gets nine months from the other tenant's death, and a beneficiary under 21 at the creation of the interest gets nine months after turning 21, with the court able to extend the time on petition.

With no heir at all, the town steps in

Rhode Island does not escheat real estate to the state. Under § 33-21-1, where a person dies leaving real estate in Rhode Island and no heir or legal representative to claim it, the town council of the town where the property sits may direct the town treasurer to take possession for the use of the town until an heir or legal representative calls for it. The town then delivers the property to a claimant who shows evidence of right or title and accounts for the real estate, though not for income or interest the town received. Section 33-21-3 lets the treasurer sue to recover possession from someone who refuses to surrender it, and the attorney general may be joined on behalf of the state in any action involving title.

The Allowances That Run Before the Shares

Chapter 33-10 sits ahead of distribution, and skipping it produces the wrong number for everyone. Section 33-10-1 gives the surviving spouse and minor children their wearing apparel outright, and entitles the surviving spouse to the furniture, furnishings, household effects, supplies and other exempt personal property the probate court deems necessary in the circumstances. Section 33-10-3 goes further and requires the court to make a reasonable allowance out of the decedent's probate estate for the support of the family, for a period not exceeding six months from the date of death, having regard to the situation of the family and the value and circumstances of the estate. The application is filed within six months after the first publication of notice of the personal representative's qualification. Read what the family keeps before creditors and the family support allowance before you total anybody's share.

Section 33-10-4 adds a rule most summaries miss. If no issue of the decedent was living at death, the probate court shall also set off to the surviving spouse whatever portion of the decedent's real estate is not needed to pay debts and is suitable for that spouse's situation and support, held on the same terms and for the same time as the chapter 33-25 statutory estate, and in addition to it.

Where a will exists, the spouse's protection becomes the chapter 33-28 elective share, and § 33-28-1 defines that share by pointing straight back at the intestacy figures: the § 33-1-5 life estate and § 33-1-6 allowance in individually titled real estate, plus the § 33-1-10 share of the personal estate. Chapter 33-10 allowances are not charged against it. The full picture of the spouse's life estate and set-off covers the six-month waiver mechanic in § 33-25-4 and the election deadline.

Recording the Result (§ 33-9-29)

When the decedent's real property is devised, distributed, set out or descends to a devisee, heir or spouse, or is legally divided by all the persons interested, § 33-9-29 requires the executor or administrator to cause a certificate of descent to be recorded in the land evidence records of every city or town where the decedent's real property sits. The recorded certificate is prima facie evidence of the facts stated in it so far as they affect the decedent's real estate. Rhode Island has no county recorder, so the filing follows the land, town by town. The Rhode Island Department of State publishes the statewide form as PC-10.6, Certificate of Devise or Descent.

How to Map a Rhode Island Intestate Estate

  1. Separate probate property from assets that pass by survivorship, beneficiary designation or trust. Check the deed language against § 34-3-1 before assuming survivorship.
  2. Split the probate property into real estate and personal property. The two follow different statutes.
  3. Confirm who survived, and who cleared the 120-hour test in § 33-1-13.
  4. Apply the chapter 33-10 allowances, including the § 33-10-4 real estate set-aside where no issue survived.
  5. Give the surviving spouse the § 33-1-5 life estate in the real estate, and calendar the six-month § 33-1-6 set-off petition from the first publication of the administrator's qualification.
  6. Send the fee down the § 33-1-1 and § 33-1-2 ladder, applying representation under § 33-1-7.

Once you have the survivor list and the tier that matches it, estimate each heir's share and check that figure against the arithmetic above before you rely on it. 7. Pay debts, funeral charges and settlement expenses, then split the personal-property surplus under § 33-1-10 using the issue or no-issue tier. 8. Check for a written advancement, a slayer disqualification, a disclaimer under chapter 34-5 and an adopted child's § 15-7-17 claim before anyone is paid. 9. Record the § 33-9-29 certificate of descent in each city or town holding real property.

A valid will displaces every default above and lets the writer name a fiduciary, a guardian for minor children and a taker for the house. The make a valid Rhode Island will guide covers the signing and witnessing rules that make one hold up.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who inherits if there is no will in Rhode Island?

The surviving spouse takes a life estate in the real estate under R.I. Gen. Laws § 33-1-5 and a share of the personal-property surplus under § 33-1-10. The fee in the real estate and the residue of the personal property go to the decedent's children or their descendants, then parents, then brothers and sisters and their descendants, then the paternal and maternal kindred in equal moieties.

Does a Rhode Island surviving spouse inherit the house?

Not in fee by default. The spouse takes a life estate in the real estate under § 33-1-5, while the fee descends to the children or other kindred. The probate court may also set off up to $150,000 of Rhode Island real estate to the spouse in fee under § 33-1-6, in its discretion, on a petition filed within six months of the first publication of notice of the administrator's qualification.

Does the $50,000 personal-property amount change with inflation?

No. Section 33-1-10 has no cost-of-living clause and no scheduled adjustment, and its History of Section line ends at R.P.L. 1957, ch. 155, § 2. The $50,000 base also disappears entirely when the decedent left issue, in which case the spouse takes one half of the surplus and nothing more.

Is dower still part of Rhode Island law?

No. Section 33-25-1 abolished both common law and statutory dower and curtesy. Chapter 33-25 keeps the historical title "Dower and Curtesy" while its operative sections carry the surviving spouse's life estate instead, and § 33-25-6 makes the chapter fully effective for the estate of every person dying after April 17, 1978.

Do adopted children inherit from their birth parents in Rhode Island?

Yes, and this is where Rhode Island departs from most states. Section 15-7-17 says granting an adoption petition will not deprive an adopted child of the right to inherit from and through the natural parents in the same manner as all other natural children, so the child inherits from both families.

What happens if no relatives can be found?

Section 33-1-3 first sends the estate to the surviving spouse, and where the spouse did not survive, to the spouse's kindred. If nobody claims real estate at all, § 33-21-1 lets the town council direct the town treasurer to hold it for the use of the town until an heir or legal representative appears and shows title.

This guide is general information about Rhode Island estates, not advice about your situation.

Sources:

It is not legal advice.

Information current as of August 2, 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 Rhode Island can change. Consult with a qualified attorney for advice specific to your situation. Full disclaimer.

All Rhode Island guides← Back to all articles