Q: If a man own property and dies without a will does his wife become the property owner?
A:
Often property is held by husband and wife a joint tenants. If this is the case, when the man dies the wife automatically owns it all.
If the man held the property in just his name and died without a will the property would be distributed--after someone initiated a probate proceeding--according to the laws of intestate succession. What the wife would get would depend on what other heirs there were. For example, if the man left a wife and one child, the property would be divided evenly between the two of them. If the man left a wife and two or more children, the children collectively would get 2/3 of the property and the wife 1/3.
However, the rule just described might be modified in the wife's favor if the wife claimed that the property was 100% community property.
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