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It's easy to put off making a will. You're busy. You're healthy. It feels like something you'll get around to eventually.
But have you ever stopped to consider what actually happens if you die without one?
The short answer: you lose all control over what happens to everything you've worked for—your money, your property, and if you have minor children, even who raises them.
When someone dies without a will, they're said to have died "intestate." And what follows is rarely what they would have wanted.
Intestate succession is the legal process that determines who inherits your assets when you haven't left instructions. Every state has intestate succession laws, essentially a default distribution plan that kicks in when you don't create your own.
These laws were written decades ago to provide a reasonable fallback. But "reasonable" by the state's standards isn't the same as what's right for your family.
The state doesn't know:
Intestate succession follows a rigid formula based on bloodlines and legal relationships. It doesn't account for the actual relationships, history and wishes that make your family unique.
Intestate succession laws vary by state, but most follow similar patterns. Here's what often happens:
In most states, your spouse and children share your estate. The exact split varies:
Some states give your spouse one-third to one-half, with the rest going to your children. Others give your spouse a fixed dollar amount plus a percentage of the remainder. A few states give everything to your spouse if all children are also children of that spouse.
If you assumed your spouse would inherit everything, you might be wrong. And if your children are minors, their share gets complicated. More on that below.
Your spouse might not get everything either. Many states give a significant portion to your parents or siblings. So instead of your husband or wife receiving your entire estate, they might share it with your parents, even if you haven't had a meaningful relationship with your parents in years.
Your children will likely inherit everything. If they're minors, the court appoints someone to manage the money on their behalf until they turn at least 18. Then they get the full amount in a lump sum, whether they're ready for it or not.
Your assets typically go to your parents. If your parents are deceased, they go to your siblings. If you have no siblings, they go to more distant relatives: nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, cousins.
This is rare, but it happens. If the state can't locate any qualifying heirs, your entire estate likely goes to the state government. Everything you worked for ends up in the public treasury.
Here's one of the cruelest outcomes of dying without a will: if you're in a committed relationship but not legally married, your partner typically inherits nothing.
It doesn't matter if you've been together for 30 years. It doesn't matter if you own a home together. It doesn't matter if your families consider you married in every way except legally.
Without a will, intestate succession ignores unmarried partners entirely. Your assets go to blood relatives, while the person who shared your life gets nothing, and might even lose their home.
This might be the most important consequence of dying without a will: if you have minor children and both parents die, a court decides who raises them.
A will is where you name a guardian: the person you choose to raise your children if you can't. Without that designation, a judge makes the decision.
The court will try to place children with a relative, usually a grandparent, aunt or uncle. But multiple relatives might petition for custody, leading to a painful legal battle during an already traumatic time. Family members who can't stand each other might fight for years over who gets the kids.
And the person the court chooses might not be who you would have chosen.
Maybe your parents are too old to realistically raise young children. Maybe your brother has values completely opposite to yours. Maybe there's a family member you specifically would not want involved in your children's lives.
Without a will, you don't get a vote.
If your minor children inherit assets (either because you died without a will or because they're named as beneficiaries on accounts) they can't legally control that money until they become adults.
The court typically requires a guardianship or conservatorship of the estate, which means:
And then, when your child turns 18 (or 21 in some states), they receive the entire inheritance in a lump sum. No restrictions. No guidance. Just a check.
Most 18-year-olds aren't equipped to manage a large inheritance responsibly. Without a trust that specifies how and when they receive the money, you're hoping for the best. You can set up this kind of trust right in Herbie.
Even when you have a will, your estate goes through probate: the court process for validating your will and distributing your assets. But dying intestate makes probate more complicated, more expensive and more time-consuming.
Without a will, the court must:
This process can take months or years. In the meantime, your family might struggle to access funds they need. Your spouse might not be able to pay the mortgage. Your children's college savings might be frozen.
And everything is public record. Anyone can look up what you owned, who inherited it and what family conflicts arose during the process.
Consider these scenarios:
The estranged parent: A woman dies without a will. She was raised by her stepmother after her biological mother abandoned her as a child. Under intestate succession, her biological mother—who she hasn't seen in 40 years—inherits half her estate. Her stepmother, who raised her and loved her, gets nothing.
The unmarried partner: A man lives with his partner for 25 years. They own a home together, share finances and consider themselves married in every way. He dies suddenly without a will. His entire estate goes to his siblings, with whom he had a distant relationship. His partner must fight just to keep living in their home.
The family feud: Parents die together in an accident, leaving three young children. Without a will naming a guardian, both sets of grandparents petition for custody. The legal battle takes two years and costs over $100,000 in attorney fees, money that should have gone to the children's care.
The young adult inheritance: A single mother dies, leaving her 16-year-old son as her only heir. He inherits $400,000. Two years later, on his 18th birthday, he receives the full amount with no restrictions. Within three years, it's gone: spent on cars, parties and bad investments.
These aren't hypothetical scenarios. They happen every day to families who simply didn't get around to making a will.
After reading all of this, you might assume that creating a will is complicated, expensive and time-consuming. That's the traditional reputation of estate planning.
But it's not true anymore.
Creating a basic will can take less than 20 minutes. You don't need to hire an attorney or pay thousands of dollars. You don't need to understand legal jargon or navigate complicated forms.
Herbie was built specifically to solve this problem. Founded by attorneys from the country's most prestigious law firms, Herbie makes high-quality estate planning accessible to everyone. You can create a free will that covers all the essentials: naming guardians for your children, specifying who inherits your assets and designating an executor.
The platform walks you through each question in plain language. It saves your progress so you can work at your own pace. And your documents are built on templates reviewed by licensed estate planning attorneys, ensuring they're legally valid in your state.
If your situation is more complex or you’d like to add layers of protection with a trust, Herbie One offers a comprehensive estate plan including a revocable living trust, powers of attorney and more—for less than the cost of a single consultation with most attorneys.
You've read this far, which means you understand the risks of dying without a will. Now it's time to do something about it.
The process is simple:
That's it. Four decisions and a few minutes of your time.
You can make these decisions right now. Think about them while you're reading this article. Then go create your will before something else demands your attention.
The cost of waiting isn't money—it's the peace of mind you're denying yourself and the potential chaos you're leaving for your family.
Don't become another statistic. Don't leave your family's future to state law and court decisions.
Take 20 minutes today to create your will. Your family is worth it.
Create your will with Herbie →
