Title 72, Title 72

(1) The value of any property is excluded from the decedent's nonprobate transfers to others: (a) to the extent the decedent received adequate and full consideration in money or money's worth for a transfer of the property; (b) if the property was transferred with the written joi…

(1) In a proceeding for an elective share, the following are applied first to satisfy the elective-share amount and to reduce or eliminate any contributions due from the decedent's probate estate and recipients of the decedent's nonprobate transfers to others: (a) amounts include…

(1) Only original recipients of the decedent's nonprobate transfers to others, and the donees of the recipients of the decedent's nonprobate transfers to others, to the extent the donees have the property or its proceeds, are liable to make a proportional contribution toward sati…

(1) Except as provided in subsection (2), the election must be made by filing in the court and mailing or delivering to the personal representative, if any, a petition for the elective share within 9 months after the date of the decedent's death or within 6 months after the proba…

(1) The right of election may be exercised only by a surviving spouse who is living when the petition for the elective share is filed in the court under 72-2-241(1). If the election is not exercised by the surviving spouse personally, it may be exercised on the surviving spouse's…

(1) In this section, "agreement" includes a subsequent agreement that affirms, modifies, or waives an earlier agreement. (2) The right of election of a surviving spouse and the rights of the surviving spouse to homestead allowance, exempt property, and family allowance, or any of…

(1) Although under 72-2-235 a payment, item of property, or other benefit is included in the decedent's nonprobate transfers to others, a payor or other third party is not liable for having made a payment or transferred an item of property or other benefit to a beneficiary design…

(1) If a testator's surviving spouse married the testator after the execution of the will, the surviving spouse is entitled to receive, as an intestate share, no less than the value of the share of the estate the spouse would have received if the testator had died intestate as to…

(1) Except as provided in subsection (2), if a testator fails to provide in the testator's will for any of the testator's children born or adopted after the execution of the will, the omitted after-born or after-adopted child receives a share in the estate as follows: (a) If the …

This part applies to the estate of a decedent who dies domiciled in this state. Rights to homestead allowance, exempt property, and family allowance for a decedent who dies not domiciled in this state are governed by the law of the decedent's domicile at death.

A decedent's surviving spouse is entitled to a homestead allowance of $22,500. If there is no surviving spouse, each minor child and each dependent child of the decedent is entitled to a homestead allowance amounting to $22,500 divided by the number of minor and dependent childre…

In addition to the homestead allowance, the decedent's surviving spouse is entitled from the estate to a value, not exceeding $15,000 in excess of any security interests therein, in household furniture, automobiles, furnishings, appliances, and personal effects. If there is no su…

(1) In addition to the right to homestead allowance and exempt property, the decedent's surviving spouse and minor children whom the decedent was obligated to support and children who were in fact being supported by the decedent are entitled to a reasonable allowance in money out…

(1) 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, guardians of minor children, or children who are adults may select property of …

An individual 18 or more years of age who is of sound mind may make a will.

(1) Except as provided in 72-2-523, 72-2-526, 72-2-533, and subsection (2) of this section, a will must be: (a) in writing; (b) signed by the testator or in the testator's name by some other individual in the testator's conscious presence and by the testator's direction; and (c) …

Although a document or writing added upon a document was not executed in compliance with 72-2-522, the document or writing is treated as if it had been executed in compliance with that section if the proponent of the document or writing establishes by clear and convincing evidenc…

(1) A will may be simultaneously executed, attested, and made self-proved by acknowledgment by the testator and affidavits of the witnesses, each made before an officer authorized to administer oaths under the laws of the state in which execution occurs and evidenced by the offic…

(1) An individual generally competent to be a witness may act as a witness to a will. (2) The signing of a will by an interested witness does not invalidate the will or any provision of it.

A written will is valid if executed in compliance with 72-2-522 or 72-2-523 or if its execution complies with the law at the time of execution of the place where the will is executed or of the law of the place where at the time of execution or at the time of death the testator is…

(1) A will or any part of a will is revoked: (a) by executing a subsequent will that revokes the previous will or part expressly or by inconsistency; or (b) by performing a revocatory act on the will if the testator performed the act with the intent and for the purpose of revokin…

Except as provided in 72-2-813 and 72-2-814, a change of circumstances does not revoke a will or any part of it.

(1) If a subsequent will that wholly revoked a previous will is thereafter revoked by a revocatory act under 72-2-527(1)(b), the previous will remains revoked unless it is revived. The previous will is revived if it is evident from the circumstances of the revocation of the subse…

A writing in existence when a will is executed may be incorporated by reference if the language of the will manifests this intent and describes the writing sufficiently to permit its identification.

(1) (a) A will may validly devise property to the trustee of a trust established or to be established: (i) during the testator's lifetime by the testator, by the testator and some other person, or by some other person, including a funded or unfunded life insurance trust, although…

A will may dispose of property by reference to acts and events that have significance apart from their effect upon the dispositions made by the will, whether they occur before or after the execution of the will or before or after the testator's death. The execution or revocation …

(1) Whether or not the provisions relating to holographic wills apply, a will may refer to a written statement or list to dispose of items of tangible personal property not otherwise specifically disposed of by the will, other than money. (2) To be admissible under this section a…

(1) A contract to make a will or devise or not to revoke a will or devise or to die intestate, if executed after July 1, 1975, may be established only by: (a) provisions of a will stating material provisions of the contract; (b) an express reference in a will to a contract and ex…

A will may be deposited by the testator or the testator's agent with any court for safekeeping, under rules of the court. The will must be sealed and kept confidential. During the testator's lifetime, a deposited will may be delivered only to the testator or to a person authorize…

After the death of a testator and on request of an interested person, a person having custody of a will of the testator shall deliver it with reasonable promptness to a person able to secure its probate and, if none is known, to an appropriate court. A person who willfully fails …

A provision in a will purporting to penalize an interested person for contesting the will or instituting other proceedings relating to the estate is unenforceable if probable cause exists for instituting proceedings.

In the absence of a finding of a contrary intention, the rules of construction in this part control the construction of a will.

A will may provide for the passage of all property the testator owns at death and all property acquired by the estate after the testator's death.

(1) As used in this section, the following definitions apply: (a) "Alternative devise" means a devise that is expressly created by the will and that under the terms of the will may take effect instead of another devise on the happening of one or more events, including survival of…

(1) Except as provided in 72-2-613, a devise, other than a residuary devise, that fails for any reason becomes a part of the residue. (2) Except as provided in 72-2-613, if the residue is devised to two or more persons, the share of a residuary devisee that fails for any reason p…

(1) If a testator executes a will that devises securities and the testator then owned securities that meet the description in the will, the devise includes additional securities owned by the testator at death to the extent the additional securities were acquired by the testator a…

(1) A specific devisee has the right to the specifically devised property in the testator's estate at death and: (a) any balance of the purchase price, together with any security interest, owing from a purchaser to the testator at death by reason of sale of the property; (b) any …

A specific devise passes subject to any security interest existing at the date of death, without right of exoneration, regardless of a general directive in the will to pay debts.

(1) Property that a testator gave in the testator's lifetime to a person is treated as a satisfaction of a devise in whole or in part only if: (a) the will provides for deduction of the gift; (b) the testator declared in a contemporaneous writing that the gift is in satisfaction …

In the absence of a finding of a contrary intention, the rules of construction in this part control the construction of a governing instrument. The rules of construction in this part apply to a governing instrument of any type, except as the application of a particular section is…

(1) For the purposes of chapters 1 through 5, except as provided in subsection (4), an individual who is not established by clear and convincing evidence to have survived an event, including the death of another individual, by 120 hours is deemed to have predeceased the event. (2…

The meaning and legal effect of a governing instrument is determined by the local law of the state selected by the transferor in the governing instrument unless the application of that law is contrary to the provisions relating to the elective share described in part 7, the provi…

(1) Adopted individuals and individuals born out of wedlock and their respective descendants if appropriate to the class are included in class gifts and other terms of relationship in accordance with the rules for intestate succession. Terms of relationship that do not differenti…

(1) As used in this section, the following definitions apply: (a) "Alternative beneficiary designation" means a beneficiary designation that is expressly created by the governing instrument and that under the terms of the governing instrument may take effect instead of another be…

(1) As used in this section, the following definitions apply: (a) "Alternative future interest" means an expressly created future interest that may take effect in possession or enjoyment instead of another future interest on the happening of one or more events, including survival…

If a class gift in favor of "descendants", "issue", or "heirs of the body" does not specify the manner in which the property is to be distributed among the class members, the property is distributed among the class members who are living when the interest is to take effect in pos…