{"id":4554,"date":"2020-05-22T17:35:12","date_gmt":"2020-05-22T21:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/?p=4554"},"modified":"2023-03-04T20:00:22","modified_gmt":"2023-03-05T01:00:22","slug":"the-sally-rosenthal-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/estabrook\/the-sally-rosenthal-case.html","title":{"rendered":"If I Die Without a Will in NJ, Will My Family Receive My Assets? A Look at the Case of Sally Rosenthal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Will your assets pass to family if you die without a Will in New Jersey? Not necessarily. In some cases, a decedent\u2019s property can actually escheat, or revert, to the State of New Jersey when the decedent has living relatives. The only way to ensure that your property is distributed according to your wishes is to execute a Will. While it may be tempting to let estate planning take a back burner to the hustle and bustle of everyday life, having a Will and other necessary estate planning documents helps your loved ones avoid additional hassles at the time of your passing.<\/p>\n<p>Intestacy laws govern what happens to a person\u2019s assets when he or she dies without a Will. Intestacy laws, however, do not interfere with assets that are jointly owned&#8211;those go to the survivor; or assets that are subject to a separate designation of beneficiary&#8211;those go to the designated beneficiary. In New Jersey, heirs must survive the decedent by at least 120 hours to inherit. New Jersey has adopted an intestacy system that only considers those relatives in the third branch and closer as \u201cheirs\u201d for the purposes of intestate succession. This is known as a parentelic system. The first branch includes the decedent, his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The second branch includes decedent\u2019s parents, siblings, and nieces and nephews down the line to great-grandnieces and great-grandnephews. The third and final branch of heirs for purposes of the New Jersey intestacy laws consists of the decedent\u2019s grandparents and descendants of grandparents including aunts, uncles, and first cousins.<\/p>\n<p>It is important to note that if a decedent dies without a Will and has a spouse or domestic partner, that spouse or partner may not inherit the full estate. This debunks the common misconception that if you pass without a Will, your spouse will automatically receive everything. The surviving spouse or partner\u2019s share depends on many things including but not limited to whether the couple had children together, whether there are children from a prior marriage, and whether the decedent has parents who are still living.<\/p>\n<div class=\"read_more_link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/estabrook\/the-sally-rosenthal-case.html\"  title=\"Continue Reading If I Die Without a Will in NJ, Will My Family Receive My Assets? A Look at the Case of Sally Rosenthal\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Will your assets pass to family if you die without a Will in New Jersey? Not necessarily. In some cases, a decedent\u2019s property can actually escheat, or revert, to the State of New Jersey when the decedent has living relatives. The only way to ensure that your property is distributed according to your wishes is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,81,343],"tags":[],"coauthors":[185],"class_list":["post-4554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-insights","category-estabrook","category-wills-trusts-estates-insights"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>If I Die Without a Will in NJ, Will My Family Receive My Assets? A Look at the Case of Sally Rosenthal &#8212; May 22, 2020 &#8212; Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook &amp; Cooper, P.C. Firm News &amp; Events<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Will your assets pass to family if you die without a Will in New Jersey? Not necessarily. In some cases, a decedent\u2019s property can actually escheat, or\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/estabrook\/the-sally-rosenthal-case.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"If I Die Without a Will in NJ, Will My Family Receive My Assets? A Look at the Case of Sally Rosenthal &#8212; May 22, 2020 &#8212; Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook &amp; Cooper, P.C. Firm News &amp; Events\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Will your assets pass to family if you die without a Will in New Jersey? Not necessarily. In some cases, a decedent\u2019s property can actually escheat, or\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/estabrook\/the-sally-rosenthal-case.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook &amp; Cooper, P.C. Firm News &amp; Events\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-05-22T21:35:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-03-05T01:00:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James K. Estabrook\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"James K. Estabrook\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"If I Die Without a Will in NJ, Will My Family Receive My Assets? 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In some cases, a decedent\u2019s property can actually escheat, or","og_url":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/estabrook\/the-sally-rosenthal-case.html","og_site_name":"Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook &amp; Cooper, P.C. Firm News &amp; Events","article_published_time":"2020-05-22T21:35:12+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-03-05T01:00:22+00:00","author":"James K. Estabrook","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"James K. Estabrook","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/estabrook\/the-sally-rosenthal-case.html#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/estabrook\/the-sally-rosenthal-case.html"},"author":{"name":"justia.admin","@id":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/#\/schema\/person\/7cf5e79d10e57a07777f194d3520749c"},"headline":"If I Die Without a Will in NJ, Will My Family Receive My Assets? 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