In the United States, an "heir" can be legally defined as a person who is legally entitled to money, property, or other assets previously belonging to a deceased individual's estate, assuming the individual died without an officially recognized estate plan. In such a situation, local laws determine who the decedent's heirs are and what type of inheritance they should receive.
Many different family members can serve as heirs, and different heirs have a distinct priority level when it comes to asset distribution. The heir apparent, for instance, is the person or persons who maintain an indisputable claim to all or some part of an estate.
The exact nature of an heir apparent can vary from state to state and family to family. Many states consider a surviving spouse to be the heir apparent, but other jurisdictions and households without surviving spouses favor the decedent's children. In some cases, a decedent's parents may be recognized as the heirs apparent.
On the other hand, heirs presumptive are individuals who have a legal right to an inheritance but whose right could be overridden by the birth of a relative closer to the estate in question. Heirs presumptive sometimes overlap with collateral heirs, a term used for family members who are not direct descendants of a decedent, such as the estate owner's siblings, aunts and uncles, and cousins. It should be noted that the law does not recognize a spouse as a collateral heir or any type of heir unless clearly stated in an estate plan. Spouses can still receive inheritance based on community and marital property laws.
In some states, adoptive heirs have restricted or altered inheritance rights compared to a decedent's biological children. However, this usually only occurs if a child was adopted after an estate plan was made and the child is not named in the will. Children typically have no inheritance rights with their birth parents following a legal adoption, but exceptions are made in states like Alaska and Idaho.
Laws governing inheritance and heirs vary from state to state, but assets are generally distributed among a decedent's next of kin if they die without an enforceable estate plan. Next of kin can be defined as a person's closest living relatives, either through blood or legal affiliations. For any person with a living spouse, the spouse is considered next of kin, followed by children. All children are considered equal as next of kin, with firstborn children receiving no special attention or priority. Stepchildren and adopted children are usually included as next of kin, but laws vary between jurisdictions.
Heirs and beneficiaries are sometimes referred to synonymously, but this is not always the case. A beneficiary is someone who has been explicitly named as a recipient of assets in an estate plan, though estate owners often name their spouse or child as a beneficiary. The concept of heirs is only relevant if there is no estate plan in place. According to the Washington Post, more than 20 percent of American households had benefited from some form of inheritance.
