SECTION 2-103. SHARE OF HEIRS OTHER THAN SURVIVING SPOUSE Uniform Probate Code

SECTION 2-103. SHARE OF HEIRS OTHER THAN SURVIVING SPOUSE Uniform Probate Code
. (a) Any part of the intestate estate not passing to a decedent’s surviving spouse under
Section 2-102, or the entire intestate estate if there is no surviving spouse, passes in the following order to the individuals who survive the decedent:
(1) to the decedent’s descendants by representation;
(2) if there is no surviving descendant, to the decedent’s parents equally if both survive, or to the surviving parent if only one survives;
(3) if there is no surviving descendant or parent, to the descendants of the decedent’s parents or either of them by representation;
(4) if there is no surviving descendant, parent, or descendant of a parent, but the decedent is survived on both the paternal and maternal sides by one or more grandparents or descendants of grandparents:
(A) half to the decedent’s paternal grandparents equally if both survive, to the surviving paternal grandparent if only one survives, or to the descendants of the decedent’s paternal grandparents or either of them if both are deceased, the descendants taking by representation; and
(B) half to the decedent’s maternal grandparents equally if both survive, to the surviving maternal grandparent if only one survives, or to the descendants of the decedent’s maternal grandparents or either of them if both are deceased, the descendants taking by representation;

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(5) if there is no surviving descendant, parent, or descendant of a parent, but the decedent is survived by one or more grandparents or descendants of grandparents on the paternal but not the maternal side, or on the maternal but not the paternal side, to the decedent’s relatives on the side with one or more surviving members in the manner described in paragraph (4).
(b) If there is no taker under subsection (a), but the decedent has:
(1) one deceased spouse who has one or more descendants who survive the
decedent, the estate or part thereof passes to that spouse’s descendants by representation; or
(2) more than one deceased spouse who has one or more descendants who survive
the decedent, an equal share of the estate or part thereof passes to each set of descendants by representation.
Comment
This section provides for inheritance by descendants of the decedent, parents and their descendants, and grandparents and collateral relatives descended from grandparents; in line with modern policy, it eliminates more remote relatives tracing through great-grandparents.
1990 Revisions. The 1990 revisions were stylistic and clarifying, not substantive. The pre-1990 version of this section contained the phrase “if they are all of the same degree of kinship to the decedent they take equally (etc.).” That language was removed. It was unnecessary and confusing because the system of representation in Section 2-106 gives equal shares if the decedent’s descendants are all of the same degree of kinship to the decedent.
The word “descendants” replaced the word “issue” in this section and throughout the 1990 revisions of Article II. The term issue is a term of art having a biological connotation. Now that inheritance rights, in certain cases, are extended to adopted children, the term descendants is a more appropriate term.
2008 Revisions. In addition to making a few stylistic changes, which were not intended to change meaning, the 2008 revisions divided this section into two subsections. New subsection (b) grants inheritance rights to descendants of the intestate’s deceased spouse(s) who are not also descendants of the intestate. The term deceased spouse refers to an individual to whom the intestate was married at the individual’s death.
Historical Note. This Comment was revised in 2008.