Dying With a Will vs. Without One in Michigan: What Changes for Your Family

Many people put off making a will because it feels like something that can wait. If nothing is written down, they assume, the family will sort it out, and the spouse or the kids will end up with everything anyway.

Michigan law does not leave it to the family to sort out. When someone dies without a will, a set of statutes decides who inherits, in what shares, who manages the estate, and, if both parents are gone, who raises the children. Those default rules are reasonable for some families. For many others, especially blended families, unmarried couples, and business owners, they can produce results the person who died would not have chosen.

This post walks through what Michigan’s default rules do and what a will changes, so you can decide whether the defaults fit your family.

What Does It Mean to Die Without a Will?

Dying without a will is called dying “intestate.” Under Michigan Compiled Laws (MCL) 700.2101(1), any part of your estate that a will does not effectively dispose of passes to your heirs under Michigan’s intestate succession rules.

Those rules reach only your probate estate: assets that do not pass through survivorship rights, a beneficiary designation, a trust, or another nonprobate transfer. Many assets pass outside probate whether or not you have a will. A house you and your spouse own as tenants by the entirety (a form of joint ownership available only to married couples, in which the survivor automatically owns the whole), a joint bank account with survivorship rights, a life insurance policy or retirement account with a named beneficiary, a funded revocable trust, and a Lady Bird deed (a deed that lets you keep control of your home for life and passes it at death without probate) all pass by their own terms. For a married couple who own most things jointly, this can mean the surviving spouse ends up with the house and the joint accounts regardless of the intestacy rules.

Whatever is left is where the statute takes over.

Who Inherits If You Die Without a Will in Michigan?

If You Are Married, Your Spouse May Not Get Everything

This is the rule that surprises people most. Under MCL 700.2102, your surviving spouse takes the entire intestate estate only if you leave no surviving descendants and no surviving parent. In every other situation, the spouse takes a fixed dollar amount plus a fraction of the rest, and your children or parents take the remainder.

The dollar amounts in the statute are $150,000 and $100,000, but they are adjusted each year for inflation under MCL 700.1210. For deaths in 2026, the adjusted figures published by the Michigan Department of Treasury are $301,000 and $201,000. The main scenarios work out like this:

• If all of your children are also your spouse’s children, and your spouse has no children from another relationship, your spouse takes the first $301,000 plus half of the balance. Your children share the other half.
• If you have no children but a parent survives you, your spouse takes the first $301,000 plus three-quarters of the balance. Your parents take the other quarter.
• If all of your children are also your spouse’s children, but your spouse has one or more children from another relationship, your spouse takes the first $301,000 plus half of the balance. The same formula applies if only some of your children are also your spouse’s.
• If none of your children are your spouse’s children, your spouse takes the first $201,000 plus half of the balance.

Here is how that plays out. Suppose a married Grand Blanc resident dies in 2026 with $500,000 in his name alone and two children with his wife. His wife takes $301,000 plus half of the remaining $199,000, or $400,500 in total. The two children split $99,500. If the children are minors, their shares cannot simply be handed to them, a problem discussed below.

One more rule matters for couples. Under MCL 700.2104, an heir who does not survive you by 120 hours is treated as if he or she died first. If spouses die in the same accident, each estate generally passes as though the other spouse had died first.

If You Are Not Married

If there is no surviving spouse, or for the part of the estate that does not go to the spouse, MCL 700.2103 sets the order. Your descendants inherit first, “by representation,” which means that if one of your children died before you, that child’s children step into the child’s share. If you have no descendants, your parents inherit. If neither parent survives, the estate goes to your parents’ descendants, meaning your brothers and sisters and the children of any who have died. After that, the statute divides the estate between your grandparents’ families on each side.

If no one in those categories survives you, the estate does not go to friends, a partner, or a favorite charity. Under MCL 700.2105, it “passes to this state.”

Who Gets Nothing Without a Will

The intestacy statutes follow marriage, blood, and adoption. Several people who matter in many families do not appear in them at all. An unmarried partner, however long the relationship, is not an heir. Neither are stepchildren you never adopted, close friends, or charities. If you want any of them to receive something from your probate estate, a will (or a trust or beneficiary designation) is the only way to make that happen.

Who Manages the Estate?

Someone has to gather the assets, pay the debts, and distribute what is left. That person is the personal representative. Under MCL 700.3203, the first priority for appointment goes to the person named in a probated will. Without a will, priority passes to the surviving spouse and then to the other heirs.

That order works well when the family gets along. When it does not, heirs with equal priority can end up competing for the job, and the probate court has to sort it out. A will lets you choose the person you trust most to handle money and paperwork, whether or not that person would come first under the statute.

Who Raises Your Children?

If one parent dies, the surviving parent ordinarily continues to raise the children. The harder question is what happens if both parents die while the children are minors.

Under MCL 700.5202, a parent may appoint a guardian for an unmarried minor child by will or by another signed writing witnessed by at least two people. Without that appointment, an interested person must petition the probate court, and the court chooses a guardian under MCL 700.5204. The court will try to act in the child’s best interests, but it will be choosing without knowing what you would have wanted, and relatives may disagree about who should step in.

The money is a separate problem. A minor generally cannot manage an inheritance, so when a child inherits a meaningful amount outright, the court may need to appoint a conservator to manage it under MCL 700.5401. A conservatorship involves court oversight and reporting, and in general it ends when the child turns 18, when the remaining money is turned over to the child. A will can instead leave a child’s share in trust, managed by a trustee you select, and paid out at ages and on terms you choose.

What Happens to Your Business?

If you own an LLC, your membership interest is personal property that passes through your estate. Without a will, that interest is divided under the same formulas described above. In the first example, the LLC interest could end up split between the spouse and two children, possibly including minors who need a conservator.

What those heirs actually receive depends on the LLC Act and your operating agreement. As explained in our post on what happens to a Michigan LLC when the owner dies, a person who receives an LLC interest often gets the economic rights but not an automatic say in running the business. Splitting the interest among several heirs can leave your partners sharing profits with people they never chose and give your family little control. A will, a trust, and a buy-sell agreement, read together with the operating agreement, let you decide where the business goes.

What a Will Changes

A will replaces the statute’s choices with yours. It lets you decide who receives your probate property and in what shares, including people the statute leaves out, such as a partner, stepchildren, friends, or a charity. It lets you name your personal representative and a guardian for your minor children. It lets you hold a child’s inheritance in trust instead of handing it over at 18.

A will can also keep someone from inheriting. Under MCL 700.2101(2), a will may expressly exclude or limit an heir’s right to inherit by intestate succession. The exclusion has to be express; leaving someone’s name out is not always enough.

What a Will Does Not Do

A will has limits worth knowing before you rely on one.

A will does not avoid probate. The will itself is the document the probate court admits and administers. If avoiding probate is the goal, that usually takes a funded revocable trust, beneficiary designations, joint ownership, or a Lady Bird deed for real estate. Our post comparing a will and a revocable living trust covers that choice.

A will does not control assets that pass outside probate. If your will leaves everything to your children but your 401(k) names your brother as beneficiary, the beneficiary designation generally controls that account. Reviewing your designations is part of any plan.

A will cannot completely cut out a spouse. Under MCL 700.2202, a surviving spouse may elect against the will and take, roughly, one-half of what he or she would have received if you had died without a will, reduced by part of what the spouse receives outside probate. The election has a deadline and other conditions, but the right is real.

How Newman Law Can Help

Dying without a will does not mean your family gets nothing. It means Michigan law decides for them. If the default rules fit your family, that may be acceptable. If you are in a second marriage, have minor children, have a partner you are not married to, or own a business, the defaults are worth checking against what you actually want.

Attorney Maynard F. Newman helps Grand Blanc and Genesee County families put wills, trusts, and related documents in place before they are needed. To talk with an estate planning lawyer about your plan, call (810) 275-0420.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can an unmarried partner inherit if there is no will?

No. Michigan’s intestacy statutes do not include an unmarried partner, however long the relationship. A partner can receive property through a will, a trust, joint ownership with survivorship rights, or a beneficiary designation.

Is a handwritten will valid in Michigan?

It can be. Under MCL 700.2502(2), a will is valid as a holographic will, whether or not it is witnessed, if it is dated, signed by the person making it, and its material portions are in that person’s handwriting. Handwritten wills are more likely to be challenged or misread, so a witnessed will is the safer course.

Related reading: how an estate planning attorney can help you put a plan in place, will vs. revocable living trust in Michigan, passing your Michigan home with a Lady Bird deed, and what happens to a Michigan LLC when the owner dies.

Please note: This article is provided for general educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship between you and the Law Offices of Maynard F. Newman, P.L.L.C. The law may change, and the outcome of any case depends on its specific facts; confirm the current law and consult a qualified attorney before acting. This content may also be considered attorney advertising.