New Hampshire has already written a will for you.

It's not a good one. It doesn't know your family, it doesn't know what you'd have wanted, and it doesn't care that your daughter has been paying your property taxes for six years while your son hasn't called since 2019. But it exists, it's called RSA 561:1, and if you die without a valid will, it governs.

Most people have a rough sense that this is how it works. What surprises them is the substance — because the assumption almost everyone brings to the question turns out to be wrong.

"Everything goes to my spouse" is usually false.

Ask someone what happens to their estate if they die without a will and married, and the answer is nearly always: my husband gets it, or my wife gets it. Simple. Under New Hampshire law, that's true in exactly one situation — when you leave no children and no living parents. In that case your spouse takes the entire intestate estate. Every other scenario splits it. Here's what the statute actually provides:

• No children, but a surviving parent. Your spouse receives the first $250,000, plus three-quarters of the balance. Your parent or parents receive the remaining quarter.
• Children, all of them shared with your spouse, and your spouse has no children from anyone else. Your spouse receives the first $250,000, plus half the balance. Your children divide the rest.
• Children, all shared with your spouse, but your spouse has other children. Your spouse receives the first $150,000, plus half the balance.
• Any child of yours who is not also your spouse's child. Your spouse receives the first $100,000, plus half the balance.
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Notice the direction. The more blended the family, the smaller the spouse's guaranteed share — and it drops from $250,000 to $100,000 based purely on family structure, not on need, not on how long you were married, not on who actually depends on the money.

What does that look like in practice?

Consider a Concord couple, married eighteen years. He has a daughter from his first marriage. They own the house jointly and he has $400,000 in an investment account in his own name. He dies without a will.

The house passes to his wife automatically — joint ownership with right of survivorship isn't part of the intestate estate. But the investment account is. Under subsection (e), his wife receives the first $100,000 plus half of the remaining $300,000, so $250,000. His daughter receives $150,000.

That daughter is not a villain in this story. She may be lovely. But she is now a co-beneficiary of her stepmother's retirement savings, and if she'd rather have her share now than wait, there is no mechanism for the widow to say no.

A will would have taken twenty minutes to prevent.

Some people receive nothing at all.

Intestacy recognizes legal relationships and nothing else. The following inherit zero from an intestate estate in New Hampshire, no matter the circumstances:

• An unmarried partner, however long you lived together
• A stepchild you raised but never legally adopted
• A close friend, a caregiver, a sibling's spouse
• Any charity, church, or cause you supported for decades
• Anyone related to you more distantly than the fourth degree of kinship — the statute cuts off there entirely
• If nobody within that boundary survives you, the estate passes to the State of New Hampshire.

For unmarried couples in particular, this isn't a fine-print issue. It's the whole ballgame. A will is not optional if the person you live with isn't your spouse.

Your children's guardian gets decided by a judge.

For parents of minor children, this is the part that matters more than the money. A will is where you nominate a guardian. Without one, the court appoints someone based on the record in front of it — which may mean a contested proceeding between relatives who each believe they know best, at the worst possible moment in your children's lives.

The court isn't hostile to your wishes. It simply has no way to learn them.

What doesn't pass through intestacy?

Intestacy only reaches your probate estate — property held in your name alone, subject to the homestead right. A great deal of what people own passes outside it:

• Property held jointly with right of survivorship
• Accounts with a payable-on-death or transfer-on-death designation
• Life insurance and retirement accounts with a named living beneficiary
• Anything already titled in a trust

This cuts both ways. It means some intestate estates are small and simple. It also means a stale beneficiary designation — an ex-spouse still named on a 401(k), a form filled out in 2004 and never revisited — overrides everything, including a will written later. Reviewing those designations is often the single highest-value hour in an estate plan.

The cost isn't only financial.

Someone still has to open the estate. Without a will there's no nominated executor, so the court appoints an administrator, which can require a bond and can invite disagreement about who serves. Distribution follows the statute regardless of what the family believes you wanted, and there's no discretion to correct an outcome everyone in the room agrees is wrong.

That's the part families find hardest — not that the law is harsh, but that it's indifferent. It applies the same formula to a devoted second marriage and an estranged one.

The fix is not complicated.

For most New Hampshire families, a will, a durable power of attorney, and an advance directive cover it. A trust makes sense for some situations and is unnecessary in plenty of others. The point isn't to build something elaborate. It's to make sure the document governing your estate is one you actually wrote.

We handle most wills on a flat fee, so you know the cost before you start.

Call (603) 499-7431 for a free 30-minute consultation, or get in touch and we'll find a time.

This article describes New Hampshire law generally and is not legal advice for any particular situation. RSA 561:1 was last amended effective July 1, 2021; verify current figures before relying on them.