Inheritance Rights of Spouses: How Long You Were Married Does Not Matter

How long you were married doesn’t matter. Love for good or bad does not matter, you will still inherit after your spouses passing unless you have waived your spousal rights.

Inheritance rights of spouses. How long you were married doesn’t matter. Love for good or bad does not matter. Hello my name is John Pankauski. I’m a trial attorney who handles probate and estate disputes in West Palm Beach Florida. All the lawyers at my law firm handle trials disputes and appeals only in four areas. Estates and probate, trusts guardianships and business disputes and we handle them throughout the state of Florida. We often get calls from prospective clients who say hey, my wife or husband just died we were married but we weren’t living together for years haven’t talked to that person and the will leave something or leaves everything to someone else. Do I inherit the short answer is yes as long as it didn’t waive your spousal rights.

Why? Because if you were a spouse, if you’re a husband or a wife and your spouse dies, the law doesn’t care if you were living apart. How long you were married. Whether it was a week or a hundred years. Whether the marriage was happy or not or whether you have even seen that person anytime recently. All that matters is where you validly married, was there a divorce If that’s a yes no set of answers, you inherit unless you waive those rights. In certain instances you might inherit the entire estate. Even if you haven’t seen your spouse in decades. Under certain circumstances you can get at least half of the estate or 30%. Be careful, talk to an experience probate litigation attorney who’s used to trying those cases and handling those appeals, helping surviving spouses, husbands and wives.