What happens to my assets if I die without a will or trust?

By Fidelis Solutions · Published May 31, 2026

When you die without a will, a probate judge — a stranger who has never met your family — decides who gets your house, your savings, and custody of your kids. That decision takes at least eighteen months. And it costs your family thousands of dollars in court fees before a single dollar reaches the people you love.

That is not a worst-case scenario. That is the default.

Every state in this country has a law already written for people who die without a will. It is called intestate succession. California's version lives in California Probate Code sections 13000 through 13100. Florida's version starts at Florida Statute 732.101. Those laws rank your heirs in a fixed order — spouse first, then children, then parents, then siblings — and they do not ask what you wanted. Your preferences are simply irrelevant without a legally valid document that records them.

Now add probate court on top of that. The American Bar Association's Section of Real Property, Probate and Trust Law has documented that probate costs routinely consume between three and seven percent of an estate's total value in legal fees, court filing fees, and executor compensation. On a $400,000 estate — which is not a wealthy estate, that is a modest home and a retirement account — that is between $12,000 and $28,000 gone before your family sees a cent.

And if someone in your family disagrees with how the state ranks the heirs? IRS Publication 559 acknowledges that contested estates extend the administration timeline well beyond the standard six-to-eighteen-month window — sometimes two to five years.

This is a solvable problem. Three documents — a will, a revocable living trust, and updated beneficiary designations — redirect your assets outside of that entire process and put your wishes back in control. We are going to walk through exactly how that works.

Fidelis Estate exists because this territory feels complicated, and most people avoid it for that reason. You do not have to navigate it alone. In the next few minutes, you will see the legal framework clearly, understand what is at stake, and know exactly what your next step is. Let's get into it.

Let's start with what intestacy actually means — and why it matters more than most people realize.

Intestacy is the legal condition of dying without a valid will. When that happens, your state's probate code takes over immediately. Your intentions, your relationships, your values — none of that enters the room. The statute does.

In California, that means California Probate Code sections 13000 through 13100 govern the distribution of your estate. In Florida, it's Florida Statute sections 732.101 through 732.106. Every state has its own version of this framework. The details vary. The principle does not. The law ranks your heirs in a fixed order — spouse first, then children, then parents, then siblings — and it works down that list until it finds a living relative who qualifies.

Here is what that looks like in a real situation.

Imagine a man named David. David is 44 years old. He owns a home worth $380,000 in Georgia. He has a brokerage account with $95,000 in it. He has two kids from his first marriage — ages 11 and 14. He remarried three years ago. His second wife, Maria, has lived in that house with him since the wedding. David never updated his estate documents. He never drafted a will. He assumed there was time.

David dies unexpectedly. No will. No trust. No beneficiary designation on the brokerage account.

Georgia's intestacy statute now controls everything. Under Georgia Code section 53-2-1, when a person dies with both a spouse and children, the estate is divided equally among the spouse and the children — with the spouse receiving no less than one-third. That means Maria does not automatically inherit the house she lives in. She receives a fractional share. David's children from his first marriage receive fractional shares as well. The children are minors, which means the court must now appoint a property guardian to manage their portions until they reach majority — a separate legal proceeding governed by the Uniform Probate Code section 5-201, adopted in over 18 states.

Maria cannot sell the house without the court's involvement. She cannot refinance it. She cannot simply stay in it without navigating a legal process she did not expect and cannot afford to ignore.

And none of this is what David wanted. David would have told you, if you asked him the week before he died, that Maria should keep the house. That his kids were provided for through his life insurance. That he had a plan in his head. The problem is that a plan in your head has no legal standing. None. A probate judge will never hear it.

This is not a rare situation. The American Bar Association's Section of Real Property, Probate and Trust Law has documented that a significant portion of American adults — across income levels — die without any testamentary document in place. The assumption that estate planning is only for the wealthy is one of the most expensive assumptions a family can make.

Fidelis Estate works with families who are exactly where David was — people with real assets, real relationships, and no documentation to protect either. The first step is simply understanding the legal framework you are already operating inside. Whether you know it or not, state intestacy law already has a plan for your estate. The question is whether that plan matches yours.

Now let's talk about what intestacy costs your family in dollars and time — because this is where most people feel the impact most directly.

When an estate enters probate without a will or trust, the court takes over administration of your assets. That process is not free. Probate court costs typically consume between three and seven percent of the gross estate value in legal fees, court filing fees, and executor compensation, according to the American Bar Association Section of Real Property, Probate and Trust Law probate cost survey from 2024.

Let that number land for a moment.

If you have a home worth four hundred thousand dollars, a retirement account, a savings account, and a vehicle — your estate might total six hundred thousand dollars. Three percent of six hundred thousand is eighteen thousand dollars. Seven percent is forty-two thousand dollars. That money does not go to your spouse. It does not go to your children. It goes to the court system and to attorneys navigating a process that a will or trust would have made unnecessary.

And the cost is not only financial.

IRS Publication 559 — Survivors, Executors, and Administrators — outlines the estate administration timeline, and the numbers are sobering. Intestacy delays asset distribution a minimum of six to eighteen months. When family members contest the succession — and without clear written instructions, that happens more often than people expect — delays extend to two, three, even five years.

Think about what that means in practical terms. Your surviving spouse cannot access the full value of the jointly owned home while the estate is in probate. Your adult children are waiting on distributions that should have been simple. Accounts that could have passed directly to named beneficiaries are instead frozen, held in administrative limbo, generating legal fees every month the process continues.

This is the part of estate planning that financial media rarely explains clearly. Probate is not a brief clerical formality. Probate is a court-supervised legal process, and every month it continues costs your family money, energy, and time they will not get back.

There is a reason Fidelis Estate begins every client conversation by asking whether beneficiary designations are current on every financial account. A properly designated beneficiary on a retirement account or life insurance policy passes that asset outside probate entirely — no court involvement, no filing fees, no waiting. That outcome is authorized under IRC Section 101(a) for life insurance death benefits and reinforced by the basis step-up rules under IRC Section 1014 for inherited assets. The legal framework exists to protect your family. It only works if you activate it.

Most people who come to Fidelis Estate tell us the same thing: they knew they needed a will, they just kept putting it off because the process felt overwhelming or expensive. That hesitation is completely understandable. What Fidelis Estate does is walk alongside you through every step — a professional guiding the legal structure, AI tools organizing your documents and account inventory so nothing falls through the cracks, and a clear picture of exactly where your estate stands today.

The goal is not to alarm you. The goal is to show you, precisely and specifically, what the cost of delay looks like — so you can make a clear-eyed decision to act.

Let's talk about what happens to your children — and your money — when intestacy stretches into months and years.

IRS Publication 559, Survivors, Executors, and Administrators, outlines the estate administration timeline. Without a will or trust, asset distribution takes a minimum of six to eighteen months. When heirs dispute the intestate succession order, that timeline extends to two to five years. Two to five years before your spouse can access the full value of the home you built together. Two to five years before your children receive what you intended for them.

That delay is not bureaucratic inefficiency. That delay is the law working exactly as designed — for estates where the owner left no instructions.

Here is where it compounds. Minor children require a court-appointed guardian if no guardian is named in a valid will. The Uniform Probate Code, Section 5-201 and following, governs guardianship proceedings. More than eighteen states have adopted this framework. Without your written designation, a judge evaluates petitions from family members — sometimes competing petitions — and makes that decision for you. The process is public, it is adversarial in contested cases, and it costs additional legal fees drawn from the same estate already paying probate costs.

This is not a worst-case scenario. This is the standard outcome of dying intestate with minor children.

Now set the children aside and look at your financial accounts. A retirement account, a brokerage account, a life insurance policy — each of these carries a beneficiary designation. IRC Section 101(a) confirms that life insurance death benefits pass to named beneficiaries free of federal income tax. IRC Section 1014 provides a step-up in cost basis for inherited assets, which reduces capital gains exposure for your heirs. These tax advantages are real. But they require a named beneficiary to activate. Without a beneficiary designation, those accounts flow back into the probate estate — and everything probate touches costs time and money.

A revocable living trust solves this differently. Assets held inside a properly funded trust transfer to your named beneficiaries without court involvement. No filing fees. No six-month waiting period. No judge reviewing your family's circumstances. The trust is a private document. The distribution it governs is a private transaction.

A will, a revocable living trust, and updated beneficiary designations — these three instruments work together. The will names your guardian for minor children and captures any assets that did not get titled into the trust. The trust holds real property and financial accounts and keeps them outside probate. The beneficiary designations on retirement accounts and insurance policies activate the IRC Section 101(a) and Section 1014 protections directly.

Fidelis Estate builds this structure with you. The process uses AI-assisted document organization to surface what you already have — existing account titling, current beneficiary designations, any prior estate documents — so nothing gets missed. A professional from Fidelis Estate walks alongside you through every step. The AI amplifies that work. You reach a fully documented estate plan without having to navigate unfamiliar legal territory alone.

Your wishes, written down and legally structured, replace a probate judge's discretion entirely. That is the outcome a will and trust produce. That is what Fidelis Estate is here to help you accomplish.

Here is what you have learned in this video. State intestacy laws — not your wishes — control who inherits your assets, who raises your children, and how long your family waits for resolution, unless you act first.

A will, a revocable living trust, and updated beneficiary designations on financial accounts — three documents — are enough to redirect the outcome entirely. Under IRC §1014, a properly structured estate also preserves the stepped-up cost basis your heirs need to avoid unnecessary capital gains. Under IRC §101(a), a named life insurance beneficiary receives the death benefit free of federal income tax, outside of probate, without delay. These are not complex instruments. They are the legal floor of responsible stewardship, and most families do not have them in place.

Fidelis Estate exists for exactly this moment. The team at Fidelis Solutions pairs licensed estate planning professionals with AI-powered document organization — so you are never navigating this territory alone, and nothing gets missed. The process is structured, it is clear, and it starts with a single intake conversation.

If you do not have a will, a trust, or current beneficiary designations, the next step is straightforward. Go to Fidelis dot solutions slash intake. Answer a few questions about your situation. A member of the Fidelis Estate team will review your responses and walk you through the documents your family actually needs.

Proverbs 13:22 says a good person leaves an inheritance for their children's children. That inheritance is not just financial. It is the clarity, the peace, and the protection that comes from having made a decision — in advance — about what you love and who you want to protect.

Your family deserves that. The planning is simpler than you think. Start today at Fidelis dot solutions slash intake.

Here is what standing still costs your family: probate fees, court delays measured in years, and a judge making decisions you never got to make yourself. You now know exactly how intestacy works, what California Probate Code sections 13000 through 13100 and Florida Statute sections 732.101 through 732.106 do when there is no will, and why the American Bar Association's 2024 probate cost survey puts avoidable legal fees at three to seven percent of your entire estate.

That is not an abstract number. On a three-hundred-thousand-dollar home, that is nine thousand to twenty-one thousand dollars leaving your family's hands before a single heir receives a dollar.

You have three decisions to make this week. First, sign a will that names your heirs and, if you have children under eighteen, names a guardian under Uniform Probate Code section 5-201. Second, fund a revocable living trust or confirm that your financial accounts carry current beneficiary designations so IRC section 1014 basis step-up planning and IRC section 101(a) tax-free life insurance proceeds can work the way they were designed to work. Third, do not let the documents sit in a drawer where no one can find them.

Fidelis Estate handles all three steps alongside you. A licensed professional walks you through each document. AI-powered organization tools keep every file indexed, current, and retrievable the moment your family needs it. You do not have to figure out the legal framework alone, and you do not have to navigate it with software that has never heard your story.

Your wishes deserve to outlast you. State intestacy law was written for people who made no plan. You are not that person anymore.

Start right now at Fidelis dot solutions slash intake. The intake process is straightforward, the team at Fidelis Estate is ready, and the cost of starting is zero. The cost of waiting is written in every case we have discussed in this video.

Go to Fidelis dot solutions slash intake today. Write it down: https://www.fidelis.solutions/intake. Your family will not have to fight a probate court for what was always meant to be theirs.