Intestate

When someone dies intestate, state intestacy statutes — not a will — determine who inherits. Each state has its own statute; the broad pattern is spouse first, then children per stirpes, then parents, then siblings, then more remote relatives. In community-property states the math is more complex because the community half passes one way and the separate-property half passes another.

Mineral curative on intestate decedents leans heavily on AOH and judicial heirship determinations because there's no will to admit. The process typically goes: identify all heirs under the applicable intestacy statute → execute an AOH naming them and their fractional shares → record the AOH in the deed records of every county where the decedent owned property.

Where intestacy gets ugly: prior marriages with children, half-siblings, predeceased children leaving descendants (per stirpes), adopted children, posthumous children, and intestate heirs who themselves have died intestate (cascading heirship).

Worked examples

• Texas intestate married decedent with three children and separate-property minerals: surviving spouse gets nothing; children take 1/3 each per Estates Code §201.001.
• Same decedent with community-property minerals: spouse keeps the spouse's 1/2 community; children split the decedent's 1/2 community 1/3 each = 1/6 each.

Common pitfalls

• Applying the wrong state's intestacy statute. The statute of the state where the decedent was domiciled at death usually controls personal property; the statute of the state where the real property sits controls that real property.
• Forgetting that "spouse" under intestacy includes only legal marriages — common-law spouses must prove the elements separately.