The Estate Planning Guide Est. 2026

What Happens If You Die Without a Will in Louisiana?

By The Estate Planning Guide Editorial Team Researched against primary sources

Published June 3, 2026 9 min read

Quick answer

Louisiana is a civil-law, community-property state, so intestacy works differently: if a married person with children dies without a will (in Louisiana this court process is called a 'succession,' not probate), the decedent's one-half of the community property passes to the children, subject to the surviving spouse's usufruct (the right to use it) until the spouse dies or remarries; separate property goes to the children outright.

⚠️ Educational information only — not legal, tax, or financial advice.

The figures on this page are general estimates. Laws, fees, thresholds, and prices differ by state and change often, and your own situation may change the result. Before you act, confirm the current numbers and rules for Louisiana with a licensed professional — an attorney, tax advisor, or licensed agent as appropriate. Reading this page does not create a professional relationship.

How intestacy works in Louisiana

When someone dies in Louisiana without a valid will, La. Civ. Code art. 880 et seq. (arts. 888–902) decides who inherits. The statute orders potential heirs by their relationship to the deceased — spouse and children first, then parents, then more distant relatives — and specifies exactly what share each one receives.

Louisiana is a community property state. On intestacy the decedent's one-half of community property passes to the descendants subject to the surviving spouse's usufruct (arts. 888, 890), or to the surviving spouse outright if there are no descendants (art. 889). Separate property follows the blood-relative scheme — descendants, then siblings/parents, then spouse (arts. 891–894).

What happens when there’s a surviving spouse only (no children, no parents)

With no descendants, no parents, and no siblings surviving, the spouse takes the community property (art. 889) and also succeeds to the separate property (art. 894) — effectively the entire estate.

What happens when there’s a surviving spouse and children

This is the most common situation and where Louisiana’s rules get specific:

Community property: the decedent's one-half passes to the children, but the surviving spouse receives a usufruct (life-use, ending at the spouse's death or remarriage) over it (arts. 888, 890). Separate property: passes to the children outright, with no spousal usufruct (art. 888). The spouse takes no ownership when there are children — only the usufruct over the decedent's community share.

For families where everyone is from the same marriage, the spouse generally gets a meaningful share. For blended families — where one or more children are from a prior relationship — many states change the math substantially. If your situation might fit that, the section above is exactly the rule that applies.

What happens when there’s a surviving spouse and parents (no children)

With no descendants, the surviving spouse takes all of the community property (art. 889). The decedent's separate property goes to the surviving parents (art. 892), or — if siblings also survive — to the siblings subject to a usufruct in favor of the parents (art. 891).

What happens when there are children but no spouse

The children take the entire estate — both community and separate property — in equal shares by heads, with a deceased child's share passing to that child's descendants by representation (art. 888).

What happens when there’s no spouse and no children

Order after descendants: with no descendants, community property goes to the surviving spouse (art. 889) and separate property to siblings and/or parents (arts. 891–892); then to the surviving spouse if no descendants, parents, or siblings (art. 894); then to more remote ascendants and collaterals (art. 896); and finally, if no heirs, the estate escheats to the state (art. 902).

This is where intestacy starts producing results that often surprise people — distant relatives the deceased may not have been close to can end up inheriting, and a long-time unmarried partner inherits nothing.

A Louisiana-specific quirk

Louisiana has forced heirship. La. Civ. Code art. 1493(A) defines forced heirs as "descendants of the FIRST DEGREE who, at the time of the death of the decedent, are twenty-three years of age or younger or descendants of the first degree of any age who, because of mental incapacity or physical infirmity, are permanently incapable of taking care of their persons or administering their estates at the time of the death of the decedent" — so the incapacity branch is also limited to first-degree descendants, not to descendants generally. Art. 1493(D) provides that a person "is twenty-three years of age or younger until he attains the age of twenty-four years". Art. 1493(E) extends the incapacity branch to descendants who at the decedent’s death have, according to medical documentation, "an inherited, incurable disease or condition that may render them incapable of caring for their persons or administering their estates in the future". Representation can bring in a grandchild: under art. 1493(B), where a first-degree descendant predeceases the decedent, representation takes place for forced-heirship purposes only if that descendant would have been twenty-three or younger at the decedent’s death; under art. 1493(C) it takes place in favour of a permanently incapable child of a predeceased first-degree descendant regardless of that descendant’s age. Art. 1495 sets the size of the share from the other direction: donations inter vivos and mortis causa "may not exceed three-fourths of the property of the donor if he leaves, at his death, one forced heir, and one-half if he leaves, at his death, two or more forced heirs", so the forced portion is one-fourth for one forced heir and one-half for two or more. Art. 1495 was last amended by Acts 2020, No. 19, §1.

What intestacy can’t do (and why it usually fails most people)

Even when Louisiana’s intestacy rules produce a result close to what someone would have chosen, the rules can never:

  • Leave anything to an unmarried partner — intestacy doesn’t recognize unmarried partners regardless of relationship length
  • Leave anything to a step-child you didn’t formally adopt
  • Leave anything to a friend, charity, or specific person outside your family
  • Name a guardian for your minor children — a Louisiana judge picks
  • Specify who handles your estate — a court appoints an administrator
  • Identify specific items for specific people
  • Account for blended-family dynamics in nuanced ways
  • Reduce probate costs and time — intestate estates still go through full probate

For most Louisiana families, a basic will — costing $300 to $1,500 with a local attorney, or $50 to $300 with an online service — is meaningfully better than the default rules.

What probate looks like in Louisiana when there’s no will

If someone dies intestate in Louisiana, the estate still goes through probate. A court appoints an administrator (rather than an “executor” — the title is different for intestacy) to:

  1. Inventory the estate’s assets
  2. Notify creditors and pay debts
  3. Identify legal heirs under Louisiana’s intestacy statute
  4. Distribute remaining assets to heirs according to the statute

For details on what probate costs and how long it takes in Louisiana, see:

What displaces the Louisiana intestacy statutes

Each of the following changes some or all of what the Louisiana intestacy statutes would otherwise direct:

  1. A basic will, prepared through an online service or by a local attorney; what each charges is set by the seller and no independent source for it is cited. A will names an executor, names a guardian for any minor children, and directs who takes what, in place of the intestacy shares set out above.
  2. Beneficiary designations on retirement accounts, life insurance, and POD/TOD bank accounts. These pass outside both the will and intestacy.
  3. A financial power of attorney and a healthcare directive. These operate on incapacity rather than on death, and authorise a named agent in place of a court-appointed guardian.

The reported cost of all three together is under $1,500 for a typical Louisiana estate. Those figures are market estimates and carry no named, dated publisher.

What happens without a will in other states

Intestacy rules differ from state to state — here’s what happens when someone dies without a will elsewhere:

This page explains Louisiana intestacy law in general terms as of 2026. It is not legal advice; intestacy provisions, dollar thresholds, and statute citations can change. Confirm current rules with a licensed Louisiana attorney before relying on this page. Sources: La. Civ. Code art. 888 (devolution to descendants), La. Civ. Code art. 889 (community property to surviving spouse), La. Civ. Code art. 890 (surviving spouse's usufruct), La. Civ. Code art. 891 (separate property; parents and siblings), La. Civ. Code art. 1493 (forced heirs; representation of forced heirs), La. Civ. Code art. 1495 (amount of forced portion and disposable portion).

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