- Married with no children
- Surviving spouse gets entire estate unless the decedent is survived by a parent. If this is the case, the surviving spouse gets an undivided one half interest in the real property of the estate plus the first $50,000 of personal property and one half of the remaining personal property in the estate.
- Married with child or children
- If only survived by one child (or a descendant of a deceased child), the surviving spouse gets an undivided one half interest in the real property of the estate plus the first $30,000 of personal property and one half of the remaining personal property in the estate. If survived by two or more children (or their lineal descendants if deceased), the surviving spouse gets an undivided one third interest in the real property of the estate plus the first $30,000 of personal property and one third of the remaining personal property in the estate.
- No spouse survives but there are other relatives
- If the decedent is not survived by a spouse, the estate is distributed in the following order:
1) children
2) decedent’s parent(s)
3) decedent’s siblings or the lineal descendants of a deceased sibling
4) grandparents or issue of grandparents (i.e. decedent’s aunts and uncles) - No surviving relatives
- Entire estate passes to the Escheat Fund of North Carolina
- State link
- http://tinyurl.com/ccvad7
http://tinyurl.com/dfxdjp
