Indiana Probate and Intestate Succession: What Happens Without a Will (2026)

Indiana probate runs through the Circuit or Superior Court of the county where the decedent lived, since St. Joseph County has the state's only separate Probate Court, and Indiana's intestate statute includes an unusual real property cap for second spouses.

Information last verified on 2026-07-16. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

How Probate Works in Indiana

Indiana does not have one statewide probate court. Venue for probating a will and administering an estate is the county where the decedent was domiciled at death, under IC 29-1-7-1. The case is then heard by that county's Circuit Court or Superior Court, which reach probate through their general original civil jurisdiction rather than through any probate-specific grant: IC 33-28-1-2 gives all circuit courts original and concurrent jurisdiction in all civil cases, and IC 33-29-1-1.5 gives standard superior courts the same. There is one exception. IC 33-31-1-1 establishes a probate court in St. Joseph County, known as the St. Joseph Probate Court, and it is the only separate probate court the Indiana Code creates. Marion County probate matters are heard in the Marion Superior Court, where IC 33-33-49-16 assigns them to a judicial officer of that court's family division, and Vanderburgh County probate matters are heard in that county's Circuit or Superior Court.

Indiana has not adopted the Uniform Probate Code, so it does not use the informal or formal terminology used in states like Idaho. The operative distinction instead is unsupervised administration versus supervised administration. Unsupervised administration, governed by IC 29-1-7.5, lets the personal representative act independently, without seeking court approval for most steps, and is available when the will authorizes it, or when all beneficiaries and heirs consent in writing and the estate is solvent. Supervised administration requires the court to approve each major action, including the inventory, claims against the estate, distributions, and the final accounting. A court can revoke unsupervised status on its own motion, or on petition, if doing so serves the estate's best interest.

Indiana's creditor claims window is notably shorter than many other states'. Under IC 29-1-14-1, a claim against the estate is barred unless filed within 3 months after the date of first published notice to creditors, or, for a beneficiary under a will whose probate was later revoked, within 3 months of that revocation. There is also an absolute outer deadline of 9 months after the decedent's death, regardless of whether notice was published at all, a considerably shorter absolute bar than, for example, Illinois's 2-year outer limit.

Intestate Succession in Indiana: Who Inherits Without a Will

When an Indiana resident dies without a valid will, IC 29-1-2-1 sets the order. If a surviving spouse and at least one surviving child or descendant of a deceased child both survive, the spouse takes one-half of the net estate and the remainder passes to the descendants, divided by representation if they are not all the same degree of relationship. If the decedent left a surviving spouse and no descendants, but a parent survives, the spouse takes three-quarters of the estate and the surviving parent or parents take the remaining one-quarter. If the decedent left a surviving spouse and neither descendants nor a parent, the spouse takes the entire estate.

Watch out: Indiana has a rule that does not exist in most other states. If the surviving spouse is a second or later spouse who had no children with the decedent, and the decedent left surviving children or descendants from a prior marriage or relationship, that surviving spouse's share of the estate's real property specifically, not personal property, is capped at 25% of its fair market value, minus liens and encumbrances. The remaining interest in the real property vests directly in the decedent's children or descendants from the earlier relationship. This is a narrow, real-property-specific mechanism, not a general reduction of the surviving spouse's overall share, and it applies only in this specific second-marriage fact pattern.

If no spouse survives, the estate passes to surviving parents and siblings, and the descendants of any deceased sibling, under IC 29-1-2-1. Parents are treated at the same degree of relationship as siblings for this purpose, but the statute guarantees each surviving parent a minimum of one-quarter of the net estate even if that would otherwise give the parents less than an equal per-person share alongside siblings. If no parent or sibling survives, the estate passes to the issue of siblings, meaning nieces and nephews. If none of those relatives survive, the estate passes to the decedent's surviving grandparents in equal shares. Indiana is a common-law, separate-property state, not a community property state.

One way to make sure your property goes to the people you actually choose, rather than following Indiana's intestate succession order, including the real property cap described above, is to have a valid will in place. recordinglaw.com's free Indiana Last Will and Testament Generator can help you create one, with no account required.

Small Estate and Simplified Probate in Indiana

Indiana lets heirs avoid full probate for a genuinely small estate. Under IC 29-1-8-1, an estate qualifies for the small estate affidavit procedure if its gross probate value, after subtracting liens, encumbrances, and reasonable funeral expenses, does not exceed $100,000. That threshold applies to deaths after June 30, 2022; it was $50,000 for deaths between July 1, 2006 and June 30, 2022, so the current, higher figure only applies to more recent deaths. The affidavit generally cannot be used until at least 45 days after the decedent's death, though a shorter 5-day wait applies specifically to transferring a motor vehicle or watercraft title. The procedure covers personal property broadly, including debt instruments, stocks, securities, vehicles, insurance death benefits, safe-deposit-box contents, and digital assets.

Indiana also imposes no state estate tax and no state inheritance tax today. The legislature repealed Indiana's inheritance tax for deaths occurring on or after January 1, 2013; only decedents who died on or before December 31, 2012 were ever subject to it, and the Indiana Department of Revenue stopped accepting legacy inheritance tax returns for those older deaths after October 5, 2023. Indiana has never had a separate state estate tax. Only the federal estate tax could apply, and as of 2026 that reaches only estates above $15,000,000 per individual.

Do You Need a Probate Attorney?

Many straightforward Indiana estates, particularly ones using unsupervised administration or the small estate affidavit, move through probate without heavy attorney involvement. A probate attorney is worth engaging when a will is contested, when the second-spouse real property cap described above might apply, when the estate includes a business or significant real estate, or when the family situation is blended enough to raise real questions about who counts as an heir. For how probate works in other states, see Probate by State.

Disclaimer

This article provides general information about probate and intestate succession in Indiana as of the verification date above. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. It is not a substitute for advice from a probate attorney licensed in Indiana, particularly for a contested estate, a business interest, a blended family, or a second marriage where the real property cap described above might apply. Figures, thresholds, and statutes cited reflect their in-force version as of the verification date; confirm current details directly against the Indiana Code before relying on any figure here.

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Last updated: 2026-07-16. Figures and statutes cited reflect their in-force version as of 2026-07-16.

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