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Washington Intestate Succession
Pillar GuideWashington26 min read

Washington Intestate Succession

Who inherits without a will in Washington: the spouse takes the decedent's community half, then half, three-quarters, or all of the separate estate.

By Settled Editorial

Washington splits an intestate estate in two before it divides anything. Under RCW 11.04.015 the surviving spouse or state registered domestic partner takes all of the decedent's share of the net community estate, and then takes one-half, three-quarters, or all of the net separate estate depending on who else survived. Two answers, not one.

That split is the thing most out-of-state summaries get wrong about Washington. A page that gives you a single spousal fraction, or that offers the spouse a first dollar amount before the fractions start, is describing some other state's law. RCW 11.04.015 contains no dollar figure anywhere in it. Every share, deadline, and rule below was read at the Revised Code of Washington on August 8, 2026. Once you know who the heirs are, read how Washington probate works for the court steps that follow.

Two Estates, Not One

Washington is a community property state. RCW 26.16.030 makes property acquired after marriage, or after registration of a state registered domestic partnership, community property unless one of the separate property rules applies. RCW 26.16.010 and RCW 26.16.020 define that separate half: what a person owned before the marriage or the registration, plus anything acquired afterward by gift, bequest, devise, descent, or inheritance, along with the rents, issues, and profits of it.

So before you can apply a single share, you have to sort the assets. A house bought during the marriage with wages is community. An inheritance one spouse received during the marriage is separate. A retirement account can be part of each, depending on when the contributions were made. Sorting that out is its own job, and it decides everything downstream. Read community versus separate property before you divide anything.

The survivor's own half was never the decedent's to give away

RCW 11.02.070 does the work that an elective share does in other states, and it does it earlier. On death, a one-half share of the community property "shall be confirmed to the surviving spouse or surviving domestic partner," and only the other one-half is subject to the decedent's will or descends under chapter 11.04 RCW. RCW 26.16.030(1) says the same thing from the other direction: neither person may devise or bequeath by will more than one-half of the community property.

That half is confirmed, not awarded. Nobody elects it, nobody petitions for it, and a will cannot reduce it. It is an ownership fact that predates the death.

Now stack the two rules. The survivor keeps their own confirmed half under RCW 11.02.070, and takes the decedent's other half under RCW 11.04.015(1)(a). On an estate that is entirely community property, a surviving spouse or registered domestic partner ends up with the whole of it, and the decedent's children receive nothing by intestacy, because there is no separate estate for the ladder to reach.

The whole community estate still goes through administration

RCW 11.02.070 carries a second sentence that surprises people: "The whole of the community property shall be subject to probate administration for all purposes of this title, including the payment of obligations and debts of the community, the award in lieu of homestead, the allowance for family support, and any other matter for which the community property would be responsible or liable if the decedent were living."

The survivor's confirmed half is theirs, and it is still inside the administration and still answerable for community debts. Confirmed does not mean untouchable.

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What These Rules Actually Reach

The shares operate on the net estate, and RCW 11.02.005(13) defines that term narrowly. Net estate means the real and personal property of a decedent exclusive of homestead rights, exempt property, the family allowance, and enforceable claims against and debts of the deceased or the estate. Those four categories come off the top. Whatever fraction the spouse takes is a fraction of what is left, so the arithmetic runs last, not first.

Only probate property follows RCW 11.04.015 at all. RCW 11.02.005(14) lists what a nonprobate asset is, and the list is long.

Property that skips these rules entirely

  • Bank, brokerage, or securities accounts with a payable-on-death or transfer-on-death registration
  • Life insurance, an IRA, a 401(k), or an annuity with a living named beneficiary
  • Real estate or accounts held in joint tenancy with an express right of survivorship
  • Property titled in a revocable living trust
  • Real estate under a transfer on death deed recorded during life under chapter 64.80 RCW
  • Property covered by a community property agreement under RCW 26.16.120

Check the title and the beneficiary form on each asset before you apply anything below. Give a community property agreement a second look, because RCW 26.16.120 lets both spouses or both domestic partners agree in a signed, witnessed, and acknowledged instrument about how the whole of the community property is disposed of at death. One of those in a drawer can move an entire estate outside these rules.

The Spouse or Registered Domestic Partner (RCW 11.04.015(1))

Run the two estates separately. The community answer never changes. The separate answer depends on the family.

The community estate

If the decedent leavesThe surviving spouse or registered domestic partner receives
Any family situation at allAll of the decedent's share of the net community estate

The net separate estate

Read top to bottom and stop at the first row that matches.

If the decedent leavesThe surviving spouse or registered domestic partner receives
Surviving issueOne-half of the net separate estate
No issue, but a surviving parent, or the issue of a parentThree-quarters of the net separate estate
No issue, no parent, and no issue of a parentAll of the net separate estate

"Issue" means all the lineal descendants of an individual under RCW 11.02.005(12), so children, grandchildren, and further down.

Washington does not ask whose children they are

This is the trap that catches writers coming from a Uniform Probate Code state. RCW 11.04.015(1)(b) reads "One-half of the net separate estate if the intestate is survived by issue." It asks whether the decedent left issue. It does not ask whether those issue are also the surviving spouse's.

A couple's own children cut the spouse to one-half of the separate estate on exactly the same terms as a child from an earlier relationship would. Vermont, New Hampshire, and the Uniform Probate Code all draw that distinction. Washington does not, and a summary that gives a Washington spouse the whole estate because "all the children are hers" is giving a wrong answer.

The three-quarters tier is real and easy to miss

Where the decedent left no issue, a surviving parent reduces the spouse to three-quarters of the separate estate. So does a surviving sibling, or a niece or nephew descended from a deceased sibling, because RCW 11.04.015(1)(c) reaches "one or more of the issue of one or more of his or her parents." The spouse takes the entire separate estate only where no issue, no parent, and no issue of a parent survives.

The remaining quarter does not vanish. It goes down the ladder in the next section, so a childless decedent's surviving mother takes one-quarter of the separate estate under RCW 11.04.015(2)(b).

Registered domestic partners sit beside spouses throughout

RCW 11.04.015 names the state registered domestic partner in every subsection where it names the spouse. The section reached that shape through 2007 c 156 s 27, the session law that created state registered domestic partnerships and amended the 1974 version of this statute; it was approved by the Governor on April 21, 2007 with an effective date of July 22, 2007. Anything written about Washington intestacy before that date will not mention domestic partners at all.

Two limits on the term. RCW 26.60.030 restricts new state registered domestic partnerships to couples where both partners share a common residence, both are at least eighteen, and at least one is sixty-two or older. And RCW 11.02.005(22) removes the label from a person whose marriage or partnership was terminated, dissolved, or invalidated before the death. A decree of separation that does not terminate the status is not a dissolution, so a separated spouse who never divorced is still the surviving spouse.

A spouse or partner also has claims that sit outside these fractions, including the chapter 11.54 RCW award from either the community or the separate property. Read what a surviving spouse can claim instead before you treat the intestate share as the final number. To put numbers against the shares below, the Washington inheritance calculator applies RCW 11.04.015 to the family you enter and splits the community half from the separate estate.

Who Inherits After the Spouse (RCW 11.04.015(2))

Whatever does not go to the spouse or registered domestic partner, or the entire net estate where neither survives, passes in this order:

  1. Issue of the decedent. Equally if they are all in the same degree of kinship, otherwise those of more remote degree take by representation.
  2. Parents. To the parent or parents who survive, where no issue survives.
  3. Issue of the parents, meaning siblings and their descendants, where no issue and neither parent survives. Same equal-or-representation rule.
  4. Grandparents. Where both maternal and paternal grandparents survive, the maternal side takes one-half and the paternal side takes one-half.
  5. Issue of grandparents. Taken as a group, the issue of the maternal grandparents share equally with the issue of the paternal grandparents, also taken as a group. Inside each group, equal shares in the same degree, otherwise by representation.

The ladder stops there, and that matters

RCW 11.04.015(2) ends at (e). Chapter 11.04 RCW contains no catch-all rung for the next of kin in equal degree, and no section anywhere else in the chapter supplies one. Washington runs out of takers at the issue of grandparents.

Because "issue" means all lineal descendants, that class still runs a long way down: aunts and uncles, first cousins, first cousins once removed, and their descendants are all issue of a grandparent. What the statute cuts off is the reach upward. A relative whose nearest shared ancestor with the decedent is a great-grandparent, which covers second cousins and great-aunts and great-uncles, connects through no grandparent of the decedent and takes nothing under RCW 11.04.015. In a state with an open next-of-kin rung, that person would inherit. Here the estate escheats instead.

How Washington Splits a Branch

Two definitions do the arithmetic, and both live in RCW 11.02.005 rather than in the descent statute.

Degree of kinship under RCW 11.02.005(3) is computed by the rules of the civil law: count upward from the intestate to the nearest common ancestor, then downward to the relative, and add the two counts.

Representation under RCW 11.02.005(18) applies only where the takers are in unequal degrees. The estate is first divided at the nearest degree of kinship in which anyone survives. The number of shares equals the number of survivors in that degree plus the number of people in that same degree who died before the decedent leaving issue who survived. Each deceased person's share then goes to that person's issue who survive and have no living ancestor standing between them and the decedent.

Two living children and one deceased child who left two children of their own works out to one-third for each living child, and one-sixth for each grandchild. Where every surviving descendant is a grandchild, they are all in the same degree, so they share equally and representation never runs.

The 120-Hour Survival Rule

An heir who cannot be shown to have outlived the decedent by 120 hours is treated as having died first. RCW 11.05A.020 sets the standard at clear and convincing evidence and applies the test where title to property, devolution of property, the right to elect an interest, or the right to exempt property, homestead, or family allowance turns on one person surviving another.

Because the burden runs that way, an unproven case fails. The person claiming the share carries it.

Two limits ride along. The final sentence of RCW 11.05A.020 switches the rule off where applying it would result in a taking of the intestate estate by the state, so the survival rule never pushes an estate into escheat. And RCW 11.05A.060 stands the whole chapter down where a governing instrument deals explicitly with simultaneous deaths or a common disaster, expressly waives any survival period, or expressly sets its own.

How Children Inherit

Adopted children

Read two sections together, because each carries only half the answer.

RCW 11.04.085 is one sentence and it is entirely negative: "A lawfully adopted child shall not be considered an 'heir' of his or her natural parents for purposes of this title." That section closes the door on the birth family. It says nothing about the adoptive family.

The positive half sits in RCW 11.02.005(12) and RCW 26.33.260(1). The definition of issue makes an adopted individual a lineal descendant of each adoptive parent and of everyone that adoptive parent is a lineal descendant of, so the adoptee inherits from grandparents and cousins on the adoptive side rather than only from the adoptive parent. RCW 26.33.260(1) makes the adoptee "the child, legal heir, and lawful issue of the adoptive parent, entitled to all rights and privileges, including the right of inheritance."

RCW 26.33.260(1) also holds the stepparent case. The decree divests "any parent or alleged father who is not married to the adoptive parent or who has not joined in the petition." A stepparent adoption leaves the parent married to that stepparent untouched, so the child keeps that bloodline.

Children whose parents never married

RCW 11.04.081 is one sentence with no conditions attached: "For the purpose of inheritance to, through, and from any child, the effects and treatment of the parent-child relationship shall not depend upon whether or not the parents have been married." It runs in both directions, unlike the one-way acknowledgment-and-support tests some states impose on a parent inheriting from a child. Washington's descent chapter carries no such test.

A child born after the death

RCW 11.02.005(12) settles it inside the definition of issue. A child conceived before a parent's death but born after it is considered the surviving issue of that parent for purposes of Title 11.

Half Blood, and the Ancestral Exception Most Sources Skip

Nearly every state now gives half-blood relatives a full share with no strings. Washington does not, and this is worth reading closely, because a page that borrows another state's sentence here gets it flatly wrong.

RCW 11.04.035 in full: "Kindred of the half blood shall inherit the same share which they would have inherited if they had been of the whole blood, unless the inheritance comes to the intestate by descent, devise, or gift from one of his or her ancestors, or kindred of such ancestor's blood, in which case all those who are not of the blood of such ancestors shall be excluded from such inheritance: PROVIDED, HOWEVER, That the words 'kindred of such ancestor's blood' and 'blood of such ancestors' shall be construed to include any child lawfully adopted by one who is in fact of the blood of such ancestors."

So the equal share is the general rule and the exception has teeth. Where the asset in question reached the decedent by descent, devise, or gift from an ancestor or from that ancestor's blood kindred, anyone not of that ancestor's blood is excluded from inheriting it. A half-sibling who shares the decedent's mother is barred from land the decedent inherited from the paternal grandfather. The proviso then pulls a lawfully adopted child of an ancestor's blood relative back inside the protected class.

This is asset-by-asset, not estate-wide. Where an intestate estate contains inherited or gifted property, trace it before you split anything.

A Lifetime Gift Can Be Charged Against a Share

RCW 11.04.041 applies where a person dies intestate as to all of their estate. Property given in life as an advancement to someone who would have been entitled to inherit is counted toward that person's intestate share, and to the extent it does not exceed that share it is taken into account in computing the estate to be distributed.

The default protects the recipient. Every gratuitous lifetime transfer "is deemed to be an absolute gift and not an advancement unless shown to be an advancement," so the person arguing for an advancement has to prove it. Value is fixed at whichever comes first, the moment the recipient came into possession or enjoyment, or the death of the intestate. Where the recipient died before the intestate leaving an heir who takes, the advancement follows to that heir, scaled down where the heir's own share is smaller than the recipient's would have been.

Slayers and Abusers

Chapter 11.84 RCW governs inheritance rights rather than criminal liability. RCW 11.84.020 states the principle: "No slayer or abuser shall in any way acquire any property or receive any benefit as the result of the death of the decedent." RCW 11.84.030 supplies the mechanism, deeming the slayer or abuser to have predeceased the decedent as to property that would have passed under the statutes of descent and distribution, or been acquired by statutory right as a surviving spouse or surviving domestic partner, or come through a RCW 26.16.120 community property agreement.

The two determinations run on different standards of proof, and the difference is deliberate. Under RCW 11.84.140, a final conviction for the willful and unlawful killing is conclusive, a finding of not guilty by reason of insanity carries the same meaning, and absent either the superior court may find slayer status by a preponderance of the evidence. Under RCW 11.84.150, an abuser is someone convicted of conduct constituting financial exploitation of the decedent, or found to have participated in it by clear, cogent, and convincing evidence. The higher bar sits on the financial exploitation side.

When No Heir Turns Up

Washington escheat runs to the State. Under RCW 11.08.140, where a person dies leaving property subject to the jurisdiction of this state without being survived by anyone entitled to it under Washington law, that property is designated escheat property. RCW 11.08.150 puts the title in the state at the moment of the owner's death rather than at any later decree.

The Department of Revenue is the agency involved, and it can be the one that opens the file. RCW 11.28.120(1)(e)(i) places the director of revenue in the priority list for letters of administration for estates holding property subject to chapter 11.08 RCW, though the director may waive that right.

A late-arriving heir has a long runway. RCW 11.08.240 gives any claimant to escheated funds or real property seven years from the date of issuance of letters testamentary or of administration to file a claim with the court that has original jurisdiction of the estate, serving a copy on the Department of Revenue with twenty days notice of the hearing.

The narrow stepchild rescue in RCW 11.04.095

RCW 11.04.095 is the only route by which a stepchild inherits in Washington, and its conditions are specific. All of these have to line up: the first spouse or partner died leaving a surviving spouse or partner and issue by a former spouse or partner; that first decedent either left a will passing all or substantially all of their property to the survivor, or conveyed all or substantially all of it to the survivor before death; and the survivor later died without heirs and without a will, so the property would otherwise escheat. Where that pattern holds, the first decedent's issue who outlived the second take the property so acquired, or its equivalent in money or other property, equally in the same degree and by representation otherwise.

It is an anti-escheat provision, not a general stepchild inheritance right. Where the second decedent leaves any heir at all, it never runs.

If the Decedent Moved to Washington

Property earned in a separate property state does not become community property by crossing the state line, so Washington built a bridge. RCW 26.16.220 defines quasi-community property as personal property anywhere, and real property meeting the tests in that section, that is not community property and that the decedent acquired while domiciled elsewhere, where it would have been community property had the decedent been domiciled in Washington at the time.

RCW 26.16.230 then handles it at death: on the death of a person domiciled in Washington, one-half of any quasi-community property belongs to the surviving spouse or surviving domestic partner, and the other one-half is subject to the decedent's testamentary disposition or descends the way community property does under chapter 11.04 RCW.

For a couple who spent a working life in another state and retired here, that section can move a large share of the estate. It is keyed to the decedent's domicile at death, not to where the asset sits.

Dower, Curtesy, and the Entireties Are Gone

RCW 11.04.060 is direct: the RCW 11.04.015 shares "take the place of tenancy in dower and tenancy by curtesy, which are hereby abolished." A surviving spouse in Washington has the statutory shares above and the chapter 11.54 RCW award, and no common law life estate in the decedent's land.

RCW 11.04.071 is shorter still: "The right of survivorship as an incident of tenancy by the entireties is abolished." Married couples in Washington do not get automatic survivorship from the form of the tenancy. An express survivorship provision on the title is what does the work.

Real Estate Vests at Death, Not at the Decree

RCW 11.04.250 says a decedent's title to land vests immediately in the heirs or devisees, subject to debts, family allowance, expenses of administration, and other charges the real estate answers for. No administration and no decree of distribution is necessary to make that happen. Title and the right of possession, and the rents, issues, and profits, are good against everyone claiming adversely except the personal representative and those claiming under the personal representative.

One proviso limits it: no person is deemed a devisee until the will has been probated. Heirs under intestacy do not have that hurdle, which is one reason a Washington intestate heir often holds title long before a court says so.

How to Map a Washington Intestate Estate

  1. Separate probate property from anything passing by beneficiary designation, survivorship, a trust, a recorded transfer on death deed, or a community property agreement. Only probate property follows RCW 11.04.015.
  2. Characterize what is left as community, separate, or quasi-community. Everything downstream depends on this step.
  3. Confirm the surviving spouse's or partner's own one-half of the community property under RCW 11.02.070. It is not part of the estate to be divided.
  4. Subtract homestead rights, exempt property, the family allowance, and enforceable debts and claims, because RCW 11.02.005(13) computes the net estate after all four.
  5. Confirm each candidate heir outlived the decedent by 120 hours under RCW 11.05A.020 before counting anyone in.
  6. Give the survivor all of the decedent's community half under RCW 11.04.015(1)(a), then pick the matching separate-estate row by asking who else survived, not whose children they are.
  7. Send the balance down the RCW 11.04.015(2) ladder, splitting any branch by representation under RCW 11.02.005(18).
  8. Trace any inherited or gifted asset for the RCW 11.04.035 ancestral exception, and check for advancements, a slayer or abuser finding, and whether the ladder runs out before it finds a taker.

Where the estate is modest and holds no real property, the heirs may never need a court file at all. RCW 11.62.010 lets a successor collect personal property by affidavit once forty days have passed and the estate subject to probate, excluding the surviving spouse's or partner's community property interest and less liens and encumbrances, does not exceed one hundred thousand dollars. Read who counts as a successor before you assume the affidavit fits.

A valid will replaces every rule on this page with the decedent's own plan and lets the decedent name the personal representative. What makes a Washington will valid covers the signing formalities that make one hold up.

This guide is general information about Washington estates, not advice for your situation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who inherits if there is no will in Washington?

RCW 11.04.015 answers in two parts. The surviving spouse or state registered domestic partner takes all of the decedent's share of the net community estate, plus one-half of the net separate estate where the decedent left issue, three-quarters where there is no issue but a parent or a parent's issue survives, and all of it where none of those survive. Whatever is left passes to the decedent's issue, then parents, then the issue of parents, then grandparents, then the issue of grandparents.

Does the surviving spouse get everything in Washington?

On an estate that is entirely community property, effectively yes. The survivor keeps their own confirmed one-half under RCW 11.02.070 and takes the decedent's other half under RCW 11.04.015(1)(a). Where the decedent held separate property and left issue, a parent, or a parent's issue, the survivor takes only part of that separate estate and the rest goes down the ladder.

Do a couple's own children reduce the spouse's share in Washington?

Yes. RCW 11.04.015(1)(b) cuts the spouse to one-half of the net separate estate whenever "the intestate is survived by issue," with no question about whose issue they are. Children of the marriage reduce the separate-estate share exactly as a child from an earlier relationship would.

Do half-siblings inherit the same share in Washington?

Usually, and not always. RCW 11.04.035 gives kindred of the half blood the same share as whole blood, unless the property came to the decedent by descent, devise, or gift from an ancestor or that ancestor's blood kindred. For that property, relatives who are not of that ancestor's blood are excluded. Washington is one of the few states that kept this ancestral exception.

What happens if no relative can be found in Washington?

The estate escheats to the State under RCW 11.08.140, and RCW 11.08.150 vests title in the state at the owner's death. Escheat is more reachable here than in most states because RCW 11.04.015(2) stops at the issue of grandparents, so a second cousin or a great-aunt inherits nothing. A claimant has seven years from the issuance of letters to file under RCW 11.08.240.

Does Washington tax an inheritance?

Washington collects no inheritance tax. A separate Washington estate tax exists under chapter 83.100 RCW and is paid by the estate rather than by the heirs, and the federal estate tax can reach a large estate on top of it. Neither one changes who the heirs are under RCW 11.04.015.

Sources:

It is not legal advice.

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

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