Probate Estate

• When an individual dies without a will in Michigan, the court must establish a probate estate to determine who will oversee the individual's final affairs and who will receive the property the deceased person left behind. The court will establish a probate estate after the deceased person's family informs it that the individual died without a will. After the estate is established, the court will name an individual to act as the estate's representative.
  
  

Death With Surviving Spouse

• If you die without a will and leave behind a surviving spouse, the first $150,000 and half of the remainder of your estate will pass to your spouse. The other half of the remainder of your estate passes to your children. However, if you are survived by children who aren't also the children of your surviving spouse, only the first $100,000 and half the remaining balance of your estate will pass to your spouse. If you have no surviving children, then $150,000 and three quarters of the balance of your estate passes to your spouse, and the remainder passes to your parents. If you have no surviving children or parents, 100 percent of your estate passes to your surviving spouse.
  
  

Death Without Surviving Spouse

• If you die without a surviving spouse, your entire estate passes to your children or their descendants. If you have no living children or descendants of children, your estate passes to your parents. If you don't have living parents, then your estate passes to your siblings or their descendants. If you have no living children, parents, siblings or descendants of children or siblings, then half of your estate passes to your paternal grandparents or their descendants and the other half passes to your maternal grandparents or their descendants.
  
  

Considerations

• If you die without a will and you have no surviving relatives, 100 percent of your estate passes to the state of Michigan. Only property contained in the probated estate passes to heirs based on inheritance laws. Property you owned jointly with another individual passes to that individual when you die, and property held in a trust passes to the trust's beneficiaries.