District of Columbia Probate and Intestate Succession: What Happens Without a Will (2026)

DC probate cases go through the Superior Court of the District of Columbia's Probate Division, which offers three distinct procedural tracks depending on the estate's size and complexity. When a DC resident dies without a valid will, D.C. Code §19-302, not personal wishes, decides who inherits.

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

How Probate Works in the District of Columbia

Probate in the District of Columbia is handled entirely by one court, the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, Probate Division, unlike states that split authority across multiple local courts. DC offers three distinct procedural tracks. Small estate administration, under D.C. Code §20-351 et seq., applies to estates at or under $80,000. The abbreviated probate proceeding is the default and most common track for larger estates, letting a personal representative with statutory priority be appointed without advance notice to interested persons or formal proof of the will. Formal probate, under D.C. Code §20-321 et seq., is reserved for unusual cases, such as a contested will, a petitioner who lacks statutory priority, or admission of a copy of a will rather than the original.

D.C. Law 25-302, effective in 2025, formally renamed what practitioners previously called "standard probate" to "formal probate," so both terms still appear depending on how recent the source is. Formal probate requires notice to all known interested persons plus newspaper publication once weekly for two successive weeks, procedural steps the abbreviated track does not require. Separate from which of these three tracks applies, DC probate also has a second, cross-cutting choice between supervised and unsupervised administration: an unsupervised personal representative does not need to file periodic accountings with the court unless a judge specifically orders it, while a supervised administration keeps the court actively involved throughout.

Intestate Succession in the District of Columbia: Who Inherits Without a Will

When a District of Columbia resident dies without a valid will, D.C. Code §19-302 sets the surviving spouse or domestic partner's share, using a purely fractional structure rather than the flat dollar amount plus fraction that many states use. DC is a common-law, separate-property jurisdiction, not a community-property jurisdiction, so the decedent's entire separately titled estate is subject to these rules. The spouse or domestic partner's exact share depends on whether the decedent left descendants, and, if so, whether those descendants are shared with the surviving spouse or domestic partner or come from outside that relationship.

Under D.C. Code §19-302, the surviving spouse or domestic partner's share works out as follows:

• If the decedent left no descendant and no surviving parent, the spouse or domestic partner takes the entire estate.
• If the decedent left no descendant but a parent survives, the spouse or domestic partner takes three-quarters of the balance.
• If all of the decedent's descendants are also descendants of the surviving spouse or domestic partner, and the spouse or domestic partner has no other descendants of their own, the spouse or domestic partner takes two-thirds of the balance.
• If all of the decedent's descendants are shared with the surviving spouse or domestic partner, but the spouse or domestic partner also has descendants of their own who are not the decedent's, the spouse or domestic partner takes one-half of the balance.
• If one or more of the decedent's descendants are not descendants of the surviving spouse or domestic partner, for example children from a prior relationship, the spouse or domestic partner takes one-half of the balance.

Whatever remains after the spousal or domestic-partner share passes to the decedent's children in equal shares under D.C. Code §19-306, with a predeceased child's own descendants stepping into that child's share by representation under D.C. Code §19-307.

If there is no surviving spouse or domestic partner and no surviving descendant, D.C. Code Title 19, Chapter 3 sets the remaining order: to surviving parents under §19-308; then to siblings in equal shares, with a deceased sibling's descendants taking that sibling's share by representation, under §§19-309 and 19-310; then to collateral relations under §19-311; then to grandparents under §19-312. Readers should confirm the precise current statutory text of §§19-311 and 19-312 directly, since the order in which the DC Code lists collateral relatives and grandparents differs from the order used in many other states.

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

Small Estate and Simplified Probate in the District of Columbia

The District of Columbia's small estate administration process, under D.C. Code §20-351, applies when a decedent's estate is valued at $80,000 or less. That threshold doubled from $40,000 to $80,000 effective March 21, 2025, under D.C. Law 25-302, the Strengthening Probate Administration Amendment Act of 2024. Unlike a pure self-executing affidavit some states use, DC's small estate process still requires a verified petition filed with the Probate Division under D.C. Code §20-352, naming a personal representative and including a diligent search statement, a list of known creditors, and disclosure of any pending litigation involving the estate.

Because it is still a court-filed petition rather than an out-of-court affidavit, small estate administration in DC moves through the Probate Division, though with far less procedural overhead than abbreviated or formal probate. Practitioners commonly report resolution in as little as roughly 60 days for straightforward small estates, though that estimate is not itself set by statute and can vary based on the Probate Division's caseload and how quickly the personal representative completes the required filings.

District of Columbia Estate Tax

The District of Columbia levies its own estate tax, separate from the federal estate tax, with a substantially lower exemption. The statutory base exemption is $4,000,000 for deaths after December 31, 2020, adjusted annually using the District's own local consumer price index rather than the federal inflation measure. The DC Office of Tax and Revenue confirmed an exemption of $4,873,200 for deaths in 2025. DC does not currently have an operative inheritance tax; a separate DC inheritance tax statute under Title 47, Chapter 19 of the DC Code still exists on the books but applies only to deaths before April 1, 1987, making it defunct for any estate today.

DC's estate tax rates run from 11.2% to 16% on the portion of a taxable estate above the exemption. The DC estate tax return, form D-76, is due 10 months after the date of death. Because the District's exemption adjusts annually and is meaningfully lower than the federal $15 million threshold, a DC estate that owes no federal estate tax can still owe DC estate tax, a distinction worth confirming directly with the Office of Tax and Revenue for the specific year of death, since the adjusted figure for 2026 deaths should be confirmed against OTR's current published guidance.

Do You Need a Probate Attorney?

A probate attorney is worth engaging in DC when the estate is likely to require formal rather than abbreviated probate, for example because of a will contest or a dispute over who has priority to serve as personal representative, when the family includes a domestic partner or blended-family descendants whose share depends on the specific fractional rules in D.C. Code §19-302, or when the estate is large enough to raise DC's own estate tax question given its much lower exemption than the federal threshold. For a modest estate at or under $80,000, DC's small estate administration process is designed to be navigable without extensive legal help. For how probate works in other states, see recordinglaw.com's Probate by State guide.

Disclaimer

This article provides general information about probate and intestate succession in the District of Columbia 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 the District of Columbia, particularly for a contested estate, a domestic partner or blended-family situation, or an estate large enough to raise DC estate tax questions. Figures, thresholds, and program details change; verify current details directly with the DC Superior Court Probate Division or the DC Office of Tax and Revenue 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.