Who inherits if there is no will in New York?

Question

Accepted Answer

Estates, Powers and Trusts Law § 4-1.1 decides. A spouse and children: the spouse takes fifty thousand dollars and half the residue, and the children take the rest. A spouse and no children: the spouse takes all. Children and no spouse: the children take all. No spouse and no children, and the statute walks out through parents, then siblings, then more distant kin. If no one proves the line, New York keeps the property. That proceeding is kinship.