Utah Intestate Succession

When a Utah resident dies without a will, Utah Code Title 75, Chapter 2, Part 1 decides who inherits. The surviving spouse takes the whole intestate estate in most families. The spouse shares only when the person who died left a descendant who is not also the spouse's descendant, and then the spouse takes the first $112,500 for a 2026 death plus half of what is left.

One warning before the numbers. Section 75-2-102 prints $75,000 on its face, and nearly every summary of Utah law online repeats that figure. It has been out of date since 2011. Utah Code § 75-1-110 adjusts the amount for inflation by the decedent's year of death, and the Administrative Office of the Courts publishes the adjusted table each January. This guide uses the published figures and labels the statutory base where it appears.

This page covers the distribution question: who gets what. For how the estate actually moves through court, read the Utah probate guide.

What Intestate Succession Covers

Dying without a will is called dying "intestate." Under Utah Code § 75-2-101, any part of an estate not effectively disposed of by will passes by intestate succession to the heirs the statute names. A will can also expressly exclude a person or a class from taking by intestacy, and the excluded share then passes as if that person had disclaimed it.

Intestate succession reaches probate property only. Assets that name their own taker skip these rules:

• retirement accounts and life insurance with a named beneficiary
• joint tenancy property with right of survivorship
• payable-on-death and transfer-on-death bank and brokerage registrations
• real estate under a recorded transfer-on-death deed
• anything already owned by a trust

A policy that names a beneficiary pays that beneficiary no matter who the heirs are. To see which assets stay out of court, read how to avoid probate in Utah.

The Dollar Figure Moves With the Year of Death

Under Utah Code § 75-1-110, the amounts stated in §§ 75-2-102, 75-2-202(2), 75-2-402, 75-2-403 and 75-2-405 rise or fall with the CPI-U annual average against a 2009 reference base. The measure is the index for the calendar year immediately before the year the person died, rounded down to a multiple of $100 for an increase. Section 75-1-110(3) tells the Administrative Office of the Courts to publish a cumulative list before February 1 each year, and it appears on the Utah Courts site as the Estate Consumer Price Index table.

Year of death is the trigger, not the year the estate is opened. An estate for someone who died in 2024 uses the 2024 row even if the petition is filed in 2026.

The Surviving Spouse Share

Section 75-2-102(1) splits into two branches. Either the spouse takes everything, or the spouse takes a fixed first share plus half of the balance. States that run the model Uniform Probate Code text carry four tiers here, so a summary written from the model act will not match Utah.

Two consequences deserve attention.

First, surviving parents take nothing when a spouse survives. If a married person with no children dies intestate in Utah, the spouse takes everything and the decedent's mother and father inherit nothing under this section.

Second, the reduced share turns on whose children the decedent left, not on whose children the spouse left. Utah dropped the model Uniform Probate Code tier that cuts the spouse's share when the surviving spouse has descendants from another relationship. A husband who dies leaving two children, both of them also his wife's children, passes the whole intestate estate to her even if she has four children from an earlier marriage.

Here is the math on the third row. Say a Utah resident dies in 2026 with a $300,000 intestate estate, a surviving spouse, and one child from a relationship that predates the marriage. The spouse takes $112,500 plus half of the remaining $187,500, which comes to $206,250. The child takes the other $93,750.

Section 75-2-102(2) adds a step that is easy to miss. When the estate passes to both the spouse and other heirs, a nonprobate transfer to the spouse as defined in § 75-2-206 gets added back to the probate estate when the heirs' shares are calculated, and counts against the spouse as an advancement.

The intestate share is a different question from the elective share and the statutory allowances. For the full set of spousal protections, see Utah surviving spouse rights.

When There Is No Surviving Spouse

Section 75-2-103(1) runs a fixed order for anything that does not pass to a spouse. Each class must be empty before the next one inherits:

1. Descendants of the decedent, per capita at each generation.
2. Parents, equally if both survive, or the survivor if only one does.
3. Descendants of parents, meaning siblings and then nieces and nephews, per capita at each generation.
4. Grandparents and their descendants, half to the paternal side and half to the maternal side.
5. One side only. If grandparents or their descendants survive on the paternal side but not the maternal, or the reverse, the whole estate goes to the side that has surviving members.
6. Descendants of a deceased spouse. If nobody qualifies above, the estate passes to the surviving descendants of the decedent's deceased spouse. Where the decedent had more than one deceased spouse who left surviving descendants, each set of descendants takes an equal share.

That sixth class is unusual, and it is the reason the flat claim "stepchildren never inherit" is wrong for Utah. A stepchild is not an heir while any relative qualifies under classes one through five, but a stepchild whose own parent was married to the decedent and died first stands ahead of the state.

Nonprobate transfers count in this calculation too. Under § 75-2-103(2), a nonprobate transfer to an heir as defined in § 75-2-205 is added back to the probate estate and treated as an advancement to that heir.

Per Capita at Each Generation

Utah divides descendants' shares "per capita at each generation," defined in § 75-2-106(2). The estate splits into equal shares at the nearest generation that has a survivor, counting one share for each living member and one share for each deceased member who left descendants. Living members take their share. The leftover shares are then combined and divided equally among the survivors one generation down.

Work an example. A widow dies intestate with three children. One daughter survives. One son died leaving a single child. The other son died leaving three children. The nearest generation with a survivor is the children's generation, so the estate splits three ways. The surviving daughter takes 1/3. The remaining 2/3 is pooled and split equally among all four grandchildren, giving each of them 1/6.

Strict per stirpes would have handed the only child of one deceased son a full 1/3 while the three children of the other son took 1/9 apiece. Utah equalizes cousins in the same generation instead.

The 120-Hour Survival Rule

Under § 75-2-104, an heir who was born before the decedent's death must outlive the decedent by 120 hours, five full days, to inherit. Survival for that period has to be established by clear and convincing evidence, and an heir who cannot meet that standard is treated as having died first. A child in gestation at the death counts as living if the child then lives 120 hours after birth.

The rule decides who inherits when relatives die in the same accident. It has one exception: § 75-2-104(2) switches it off where applying it would push the estate to the state.

Rules That Change Who Counts as an Heir

Half blood. Section 75-2-107 is a single sentence: relatives of the half blood inherit the same share they would inherit if they were of the whole blood. Utah attaches no ancestral-property exception, so a half sibling takes exactly what a full sibling takes.

Two lines of relationship. Under § 75-2-113, a person related to the decedent through two lines takes one share only, the larger of the two.

Adopted children. Section 75-2-114(3) makes an adopted person the child of the adopting parents and not of a pre-existing parent. Adoption by the spouse of a child's pre-existing parent is carved out, so a stepparent adoption leaves the child's inheritance rights through that pre-existing parent intact.

Children born outside marriage. Under § 75-2-114(2), a person is the child of the person's parents whatever the parents' marital status, and the parent-child relationship may be established under the Uniform Parentage Act in Title 81, Chapter 5.

A parent who walked away. Section 75-2-114(4) blocks inheritance from or through a child by that child's parent, or by the parent's kindred, unless the parent openly treated the child as the parent's own and did not refuse to support the child. The bar runs upward only. It does not stop the child from inheriting from the parent.

Advancements. Under § 75-2-109, a lifetime gift counts against an heir's share only if the decedent declared it an advancement in a contemporaneous writing, or the heir acknowledged it in writing. Without that paper, gifts made during life change nothing.

Debts owed to the decedent. Section 75-2-110 charges a debt against the debtor's own share alone, and drops it entirely if the debtor died first.

Citizenship. Section 75-2-111 bars no one from taking as an heir on the ground that the heir, or someone the heir claims through, is or has been an alien.

Dower and curtesy. Section 75-2-112 abolishes both.

Divorce. Under § 75-2-802, a divorced or annulled former spouse is not a surviving spouse unless the couple remarried and were married at the death. A decree of separation that leaves the marriage intact is not a divorce for this purpose.

The slayer rule. Section 75-2-803 strips a person who commits a "disqualifying homicide" of the decedent of every benefit under Chapter 2, and the intestate estate then passes as if that person had disclaimed. A conviction is not required: under § 75-2-803(7) a court may find the homicide by a preponderance of the evidence, unless disinheritance would create a manifest injustice. The definition covers felony homicide offenses in Title 76, Chapter 5, and expressly leaves out automobile homicide under §§ 76-5-207 and 76-5-207.5.

Disclaimers. An heir who does not want a share may disclaim it. Under § 75-2-801(2)(a) a written disclaimer of a present interest passing by intestacy must be filed no later than nine months after the death, in a court with jurisdiction under Title 78A, with a copy delivered to the personal representative.

Family Protections Come Ahead of Creditors

Three statutory allowances sit ahead of the estate's creditors, and all three follow the same year-of-death indexing described above. For a death in 2026:

• Homestead allowance, $33,700 under § 75-2-402, to the surviving spouse, or split among the minor and dependent children if no spouse survives. It has priority over all claims against the estate.
• Exempt property, $22,500 under § 75-2-403, in household furniture, automobiles, furnishings, appliances and personal effects, measured in excess of any security interests.
• Family allowance, "a reasonable allowance" under § 75-2-404 for maintenance during administration. Section 75-2-405(1) caps what a personal representative may set without going to the court at a $40,500 lump sum or $3,375 a month for one year.

Read the charging language before treating any of these as a bonus. Sections 75-2-402, 75-2-403 and 75-2-404 each charge the allowance against whatever the recipient already takes by will, by intestate succession, by elective share or by nonprobate transfer, unless the will or governing instrument says otherwise. The force of these sections is priority over the estate's creditors rather than an extra slice on top of an heir's share.

The statutory text prints the 2010 base amounts of $22,500, $15,000 and $27,000, so a summary quoting those numbers is describing a death that happened in 2010. Watch one collision closely: the current exempt-property figure of $22,500 happens to equal the 2010 homestead figure, which makes a page that mixes the two eras look internally consistent. Read our Utah family allowance guide for how these amounts are claimed.

What Happens If No Heir Exists

Only when no taker exists under any class, including the deceased spouse's descendants, does § 75-2-105(2) send the intestate estate to the state of Utah for the benefit of the permanent state school fund. Minerals and mineral proceeds that pass this way are administered by the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration. Because the statute reaches grandparents' descendants and then a former spouse's children, escheat is rare.

How an Intestate Estate Gets Settled

The statutes name the heirs. Someone still has to open the estate and hand the property over.

Probate in Utah is heard in the district court. Section 75-1-302 places jurisdiction over decedents' estates in the court, § 78A-5-102(1) gives the district court original jurisdiction in all civil matters, and § 78A-5-101(2)(b) puts a district court in the county seat of each of the 29 counties. There is no separate probate court and no county-by-county forum question.

The court appoints a personal representative, who carries the same personal representative duties that apply when a will exists: collect the assets, notify creditors, pay allowed claims, and hand out the statutory shares.

Plenty of intestate estates never reach a courtroom. Under § 75-3-1201, a successor can collect personal property on a signed affidavit once 30 days have passed since the death, provided the value of the entire estate subject to administration, wherever located and less liens and encumbrances, does not exceed $100,000. That affidavit is not filed with any court, so it costs nothing. The Motor Vehicle Division will retitle up to four boats, motor vehicles, trailers or semitrailers on the same affidavit. See the Utah small estate guide for the limits, including the fact that the affidavit cannot convey real estate.

Timing matters too. Section 75-3-107(1) blocks an informal probate proceeding or a formal testacy proceeding commenced more than three years after the death, with listed exceptions. Section 75-3-107(2) carves out proceedings to determine the heirs of an intestate, so the three-year bar does not close that door.

To put dollars against the shares for one family rather than for a worked example, run the survivors through the Utah inheritance calculator. It applies the two-tier 75-2-102 test and the 75-2-103 ladder to the people you enter.

If these default rules would send property somewhere the owner would not choose, the fix is to write a will. Utah will requirements covers execution, witnesses and holographic wills. The same intestate shares also decide who inherits, and who has standing, when a will is set aside in a Utah will contest.

When to Get Help

Many Utah intestate estates divide straight off the statute. Call a licensed Utah attorney when:

• a blended family triggers the § 75-2-102(1)(b) first share and the half-balance split
• deaths days apart raise a 120-hour survival question
• a per-capita division runs across three generations
• the deceased spouse's descendants under § 75-2-103(1)(f) are the last class standing
• an advancement writing, a parental bar under § 75-2-114(4), or a slayer petition is in play
• an heir cannot be found, or the family tree is disputed

This guide helps organize the statutory shares and the questions worth asking. Confirm anything that affects a particular estate with the district court handling it, the current Administrative Office of the Courts table, or a licensed Utah attorney.

Sources:

• Title: Utah Code Section 75-2-102, Intestate share of spouse. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Amended by Chapter 93, 2010 General Session, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75/Chapter2/C75-2-S102_1800010118000101.html
• Title: Utah Code Section 75-2-103, Share of heirs other than surviving spouse. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Amended by Chapter 324, 2010 General Session, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75/Chapter2/C75-2-S103_1800010118000101.html
• Title: Utah Code Section 75-1-110, Cost of living adjustment of certain dollar amounts. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Enacted by Chapter 93, 2010 General Session, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75/Chapter1/C75-1-S110_1800010118000101.html
• Title: Estate Consumer Price Index. Publisher: Utah State Courts, Administrative Office of the Courts. Publication Date: Updated 2026-01-15, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://www.utcourts.gov/en/about/miscellaneous/legal-community/price.html
• Title: Utah Code Section 75-3-1201, Collection of personal property by affidavit, Vehicles, Water shares excluded. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Effective 2025-05-07, Amended by Chapter 123, 2025 General Session, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75/Chapter3/C75-3-S1201_2025050720250507.html

It is not legal advice.