Title 19, Descent, Distribution, and Trusts. [Enacted title]

(a) If the estate is otherwise sufficient, property specifically devised may not be used to satisfy rights to homestead allowance or exempt property. Subject to this restriction, the surviving spouse, surviving domestic partner, guardians of minor children, or children who are ad…

Whoever, with respect to the allowances or exemptions authorized by sections 19-101.01 to 19-101.05 , (1) makes a false affidavit, (2) willfully violates an order of the Probate Division, or (3) willfully violates a provision of this chapter, shall be fined not more than $2,500 f…

The estates of dower and curtesy are abolished.

Subject to section 19-114 , and unless it is otherwise expressed in the will, a devise of real estate or an interest therein, or a bequest of personal estate or an interest therein, to the surviving spouse or surviving domestic partner, bars his or her share in the decedent’s est…

(a) Subject to section 19-114, a surviving spouse or surviving domestic partner is, by a devise or bequest specified in section 19-112, barred on any statutory rights or interest he has in the real and personal estate of the deceased spouse or deceased domestic partner unless, wi…

A surviving spouse or surviving domestic partner who does not renounce as provided by section 19-113 is entitled to the benefit of all provisions in his favor in the will of the deceased spouse or deceased domestic partner and shall share, in accordance with sections 19-301 and 1…

For the purposes of this chapter, the term: (1) “Domestic partner” shall have the same meaning as provided in § 32-701(3). (2) “Domestic partnership” shall have the same meaning as provided in § 32-701(4). (3) “Probate Court” means the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.

The real estate in the District of Columbia, of a deceased person, male or female, if not devised, shall descend in fee simple, and the surplus of the personal estate of a deceased resident of the District, if not bequeathed, shall be distributed, to the surviving spouse or survi…

The intestate share of a decedent’s surviving spouse or surviving domestic partner is: (1) The entire intestate estate, if no descendant or parent of the decedent survives the decedent; (2) Two-thirds of any balance of the intestate estate, if the decedent’s surviving descendants…

The surplus, above the share of the surviving spouse or surviving domestic partner, or the whole surplus, when there is no surviving spouse or surviving domestic partner, descends and is distributed as provided by this chapter and by section 19-701 .

When the intestate leaves children and no other descendants, the surplus is divided equally among them.

(a) Subject to subsection (b) of this section, and to section 19-319, when the intestate leaves a child and a child of a deceased child, the child of the deceased child takes such share as his deceased parent would, if living, be entitled to, and every other descendant in existen…

When the intestate leaves no child, or descendant, the whole is divided equally between the father and mother or their survivor.

When the intestate leaves a brother or sister, or child or descendant of a brother or sister, and no child, descendant, or father or mother, the brother, sister, or child or descendant of a brother or sister is entitled to the whole.

Each brother and sister of the intestate is entitled to an equal share, and the children or descendants of a brother or sister of the intestate, stand in the place of their deceased parents respectively.

After children, descendants, parents, brothers, and sisters of the deceased and their descendants, all collateral relations in equal degree share, and representation among the collaterals is not allowed.

The grandparents, or such of them as survive, share alike where there are no collaterals.

When a person entitled to distribution dies before the distribution is made, his share goes to his estate or legal representatives.

A right in the inheritance to real or personal property does not accrue to or vest in a person other than the children of the intestate and their descendants, unless the person is in being and capable in law to take as heir or distributee at the time of the intestate’s death; but…

There is no distinction between the kindred of the whole- and the half-blood.

Children born out of wedlock and the heirs of children born out of wedlock are capable of taking real and personal estate by inheritance from their mother or from their father if parenthood has been established, or from each other, or from heirs of each other, as the case may be,…

When a trustee is seized of the naked legal estate in real estate in fee simple, and dies intestate thereof, the legal estate descends according to section 19-301 to the persons who would inherit the beneficial estate if it were vested in them.

When a man has a child by a woman whom he afterwards marries, the child, if acknowledged by the man, is, in virtue of the marriage and acknowledgment, legitimated and capable in law of inheriting and transmitting heritable property as if born in wedlock.

(a) If a child or descendant has been advanced by the intestate during the intestate’s lifetime, by settlement or portion, real estate or personal estate, the value thereof is reckoned for the purposes of descent and distribution as part of the estate of the intestate descendible…

(a) A person convicted of felonious homicide of another person, by way of murder or manslaughter, takes no estate or interest in property of any kind from that other person by way of: (1) inheritance, distribution, devise, or bequest; or (2) remainder, reversion, or executory dev…

In making title by descent it is no bar to a party claiming as heir that an ancestor, whether living or dead, through whom he derives his descent from the intestate, is or has been an alien.

For the purposes of this chapter, the term “domestic partner” shall have the same meaning as provided in § 32-701(3).

For the purposes of the chapter, the term: (1) “Co-owners with right of survivorship” includes joint tenants, tenants by the entireties, and other co-owners of property or accounts held under circumstances that entitles one or more to the whole of the property or account on the d…

(a) Except as provided in section 19-506, if the title to property, the devolution of property, the right to elect an interest in property, or the right to exempt property, homestead or family allowance depends upon an individual’s survivorship of the death of another individual,…

Except as provided in section 19-506 , for purposes of a provision of a governing instrument that relates to an individual surviving an event, including the death of another individual, an individual who is not established by clear and convincing evidence to have survived the eve…

Except as provided in section 19-506 : (1) If it is not established by clear and convincing evidence that one of 2 co-owners with right of survivorship survived the other co-owner by 120 hours, one-half of the property passes as if one had survived by 120 hours and one-half as if…

In addition to the rules of evidence, the following rules relating to a determination of death and status apply: (1) Death occurs when an individual is determined to be dead under section 7-601. (2) A certified or authenticated copy of a death certificate purporting to be issued …

Survival by 120 hours is not required if: (1) The governing instrument contains language dealing explicitly with simultaneous deaths or deaths in a common disaster and that language is operable under the facts of the case; (2) The governing instrument expressly indicates that an …

(a) A payor or other third party is not liable for having made a payment or transferred an item of property or any other benefit to a person designated in a governing instrument who, under this chapter, is not entitled to the payment or item of property, or for having taken any o…

This chapter shall be applied and construed to effectuate its general purpose to make uniform the law with respect to the subject of this chapter among the states enacting it.

On the effective date of this chapter [April 27, 2001]: (1) An act done before the effective date in any proceeding and any accrued right is not impaired by this chapter. If a right is acquired, extinguished, or barred upon the expiration of a prescribed period of time that has c…

(a) A provision for a nonprobate transfer on death in an insurance policy, contract of employment, bond, mortgage, promissory note, certificated or uncertificated security, account agreement, custodial agreement, deposit agreement, compensation plan, pension plan, individual reti…

(a) For the purposes of this section, the term “nonprobate transfer” means a valid transfer effective at death, other than a transfer of a survivorship interest in a joint tenancy of real estate, by a transferor whose last domicile was in the District to the extent that the trans…

For the purposes of this subchapter, the term: (1) “Account” means a contract of deposit between a depositor and a financial institution, and includes a checking account, savings account, certificate of deposit, and share account. (2) “Agent” means a person authorized to make acc…

This subchapter does not apply to: (1) An account established for a partnership, joint venture, or other organization for a business purpose; (2) An account controlled by one or more persons as an agent or trustee for a corporation, unincorporated association, or charitable or ci…

(a) An account may be for a single party or multiple parties. A multiple-party account may be with or without a right of survivorship between the parties. Subject to section § 19-602.12(c), either a single-party account or a multiple-party account may have a POD designation, an a…

(a) A contract of deposit that contains provisions in substantially the following form establishes the type of account provided, and the account is governed by the provisions of this subchapter applicable to an account of that type: “UNIFORM SINGLE-OR MULTIPLE-PARTY ACCOUNT FORM …

(a) By a writing signed by all parties, the parties may designate as agent of all parties on an account a person other than a party. (b) Unless the terms of an agency designation provide that the authority of the agent terminates on disability or incapacity of a party, the agent’…

The provisions of part B concerning beneficial ownership as between parties or as between parties and beneficiaries apply only to controversies between those persons and their creditors and other successors, and do not apply to the right of those persons to payment as determined …

(a) For the purposes of this section, the term “net contribution” of a party means the sum of all deposits to an account made by or for the party, less all payments from the account made to or for the party which have not been paid to or applied to the use of another party and a …

(a) Except as otherwise provided in this subchapter, on death of a party sums on deposit in a multiple-party account belong to the surviving party or parties. If 2 or more parties survive and one is the surviving spouse or surviving domestic partner of the decedent, the amount to…