California Next of Kin Laws: Inheritance, Healthcare, Funerals

California’s next-of-kin laws rank family members by closeness of relationship and use that ranking to decide three things when someone hasn’t left instructions: who inherits property, who makes medical decisions during incapacity, and who controls funeral and burial arrangements. A surviving spouse or registered domestic partner sits at the top of the list in every category. The state’s default hierarchy only takes over when there is no will, no trust, and no advance healthcare directive, so understanding it matters most for families caught without those documents.

Who Counts as Next of Kin

The general priority order runs from closest relationship outward:

  • Surviving spouse or registered domestic partner. Registered domestic partners hold the same legal standing as spouses for inheritance, healthcare, and funeral authority.1Justia Law. California Family Code Sections 297-297.5
  • Children. Biological and legally adopted children are treated equally; adoption gives a child the same rights as a biological child in every respect.
  • Parents.
  • Siblings. Half-siblings inherit the same share as full siblings.2California Legislative Information. California Probate Code Section 6406
  • More distant relatives, in order: nieces and nephews, grandparents, aunts and uncles, first cousins.

The exact priority list shifts slightly depending on whether the question is about inheritance, medical decisions, or funeral arrangements, but the top of the list stays the same. Proving kinship to more distant relatives takes documentation. The probate court will ask for birth certificates, marriage records, and sometimes DNA evidence before recognizing a claim.

Unmarried Partners and Common-Law Marriage

California does not allow couples to form a common-law marriage inside the state. If you and your partner never formally married or registered as domestic partners, you have no next-of-kin rights, no matter how long you lived together. The one exception: California will recognize a common-law marriage that was validly created in another state that allows it, because the U.S. Constitution’s Full Faith and Credit Clause requires it. For everyone else, unmarried and unregistered partners are legal strangers under California’s next-of-kin framework.

Stepchildren and Foster Children

A stepchild or foster child does not automatically inherit through intestate succession. California recognizes the relationship only when two conditions are both met: the parent-child bond began while the child was a minor and lasted through both of their lifetimes, and clear and convincing evidence shows the stepparent or foster parent would have adopted the child but was blocked by a legal barrier. A biological parent’s refusal to consent to adoption does not count as a legal barrier. Divorce from the biological parent does not cut off the stepchild’s right under this rule, so long as the parent-child relationship continued.

What Next of Kin Inherits Without a Will

When someone dies without a will, California’s intestate succession rules under the Probate Code decide who gets what.3Justia Law. California Probate Code Sections 6400-6414 The outcome depends on whether the property is community or separate, and on who survives the decedent.

Community Property Goes to the Spouse

California is a community-property state, so most assets acquired during a marriage belong equally to both spouses. The surviving spouse already owns their half. Under intestate succession, the decedent’s half passes entirely to the surviving spouse, meaning the survivor ends up with all of the community property.4California Legislative Information. California Probate Code Section 6401 Children, parents, and siblings receive nothing from community property when a spouse survives.

Separate Property Gets Split

Separate property includes assets owned before the marriage, gifts, and inheritances received by one spouse individually. The surviving spouse’s share depends on which other relatives are still alive:4California Legislative Information. California Probate Code Section 6401

  • No surviving children, parents, or siblings: the spouse takes all of the separate property.
  • One surviving child (or descendants of one deceased child): the spouse takes one-half; the child or descendants take the other half.
  • Two or more surviving children (or their descendants): the spouse takes one-third; the children split the remaining two-thirds equally.
  • No children, but surviving parents or siblings: the spouse takes one-half; the parents or siblings share the rest.

These fractions catch people off guard. A surviving spouse with three children does not automatically get the house if it was separate property. One-third of that asset’s value goes to the spouse; the children split two-thirds among themselves.

When No Spouse Survives

Without a surviving spouse or domestic partner, the entire estate passes down the ladder:3Justia Law. California Probate Code Sections 6400-6414

  • Children in equal shares. If a child died before the parent, that child’s own descendants step in and split the deceased child’s share.5California Legislative Information. California Probate Code Section 240
  • Parents, if no children or grandchildren survive.
  • Siblings and their descendants, if no parents survive. Half-siblings share equally with full siblings.
  • Grandparents and their descendants, which is where aunts, uncles, and first cousins fall.

If the court works through every branch of the family tree and finds no living heir, the estate escheats to the State of California.6California Legislative Information. California Probate Code Section 6404 Rare, but it happens.

Assets That Skip the Hierarchy

Not everything a person owns follows intestate succession. Several categories of property transfer automatically at death, bypassing probate and the next-of-kin hierarchy entirely. Families sometimes spend months in probate fighting over an estate without realizing the largest assets passed to someone else the day the person died. The most common examples:

  • Real estate or bank accounts held in joint tenancy transfer automatically to the surviving co-owner.
  • Life insurance policies, retirement accounts like 401(k)s and IRAs, and annuities go directly to the named beneficiary regardless of what a will says or what intestacy law provides.
  • Payable-on-death and transfer-on-death bank and brokerage accounts pass outside probate.
  • Property held in a revocable living trust is distributed according to the trust terms, not intestate succession.

An outdated beneficiary form on a retirement account will override both a will and the intestate succession rules. Updating those designations after a divorce, remarriage, or birth of a child matters at least as much as writing a will.

Who Makes Medical Decisions During Incapacity

When a person becomes incapacitated and cannot communicate, California law sets out who steps in. The cleanest situation is that the patient already signed an advance healthcare directive appointing a specific agent.7Justia Law. California Probate Code Sections 4650-4660 That agent has clear legal authority; the hospital does not need to guess. This is where most planning failures happen. People assume their spouse or adult child will automatically be allowed to make decisions, and while that is often true in practice, it is not guaranteed.

If There Is No Advance Directive

If the patient never appointed an agent, California’s Health Care Decisions Law allows a surrogate to step in. The patient can verbally designate a surrogate while still in the hospital, and that designation lasts for the course of treatment, the hospital stay, or 60 days, whichever is shorter.8California Legislative Information. California Probate Code Section 4711 If the patient cannot designate anyone, the healthcare provider identifies a surrogate from the family hierarchy: spouses and domestic partners first, then adult children, then parents, then siblings. The provider has some discretion in choosing among available family members, particularly when one clearly understands the patient’s wishes better than others.

Conflict among relatives at the same priority level is a real problem. If two adult children disagree about a parent’s treatment, the hospital cannot simply pick the one it prefers. In non-emergency settings, a single family member’s dissent at the same priority level can block surrogate consent. When consensus fails, the dispute typically goes to a hospital ethics committee first, and if that does not resolve it, to the probate court through a conservatorship proceeding. A conservator appointed by the court has sole authority to make healthcare decisions for the incapacitated person.

POLST Forms

A POLST (Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment) is a separate tool that records a patient’s specific preferences about resuscitation, life-sustaining treatment, and artificial nutrition. Unlike an advance directive, a POLST is a physician’s order that healthcare providers must follow.9California Emergency Medical Services Authority. Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment Form Completing one is voluntary, but once signed it carries legal weight. A patient who has checked “Do Not Attempt Resuscitation” on the form will not receive chest compressions or defibrillation, even from emergency responders. The POLST complements an advance directive; it does not replace it.

Who Controls Funeral and Burial Arrangements

The right to control what happens to a person’s remains follows its own priority list. The person with authority chooses between burial and cremation, selects the funeral home, and decides on the final resting place. That same person also carries financial responsibility for the reasonable cost of disposition, shared jointly with other relatives at the same level and the decedent’s estate.10California Legislative Information. California Health and Safety Code Section 7100

The order runs:

  • An agent under a healthcare power of attorney who has been given authority over disposition. The agent is personally liable for costs only if they agreed to pay or made decisions that incurred costs beyond what the estate could cover.
  • The surviving spouse or domestic partner.
  • Surviving adult children. If there are several, a majority controls.
  • Surviving parents.
  • Surviving siblings.

Written Declarations

A person can sidestep family disagreements entirely by writing a declaration specifying their wishes for disposition, funeral goods, and services before they die. The declaration must be detailed enough to avoid ambiguity, and arrangements for payment must already be in place so the person with authority is not forced to pay out of pocket.11California Legislative Information. California Health and Safety Code Section 7100.1 Unless the decedent left a signed statement allowing changes, the declaration cannot be materially altered after death. When a valid declaration exists, the person with authority under the priority list must follow it.

When Family Members Disagree

Anyone who believes estate property is being wrongfully withheld, or that a claimed heir is not entitled to a share, can file a petition with the probate court.12California Legislative Information. California Probate Code Section 850 These petitions cover a wide range of situations: a sibling who moved the decedent’s bank account before death, a claim that a purported heir is not actually related to the decedent, or a dispute over whether property was community or separate. The court can appoint a neutral administrator if the family members responsible for the estate cannot cooperate.

For healthcare disputes, the most common legal path is a conservatorship petition. A court-appointed conservator has authority to make all medical decisions, overriding disagreements among family members. Conservatorship is a serious step that removes decision-making power from the family collectively and places it in one person’s hands, subject to court oversight.

Funeral disputes have their own track. When multiple people at the same priority level disagree, funeral homes often refuse to proceed without either unanimous agreement or a court order. Courts can intervene under the Health and Safety Code to rule on contested claims over disposition.13California Legislative Information. California Health and Safety Code Section 7105 These cases move quickly out of necessity.

Mediation is worth considering before litigation in any of these categories. A neutral mediator helps the parties negotiate a resolution without the cost and adversarial nature of court. Mediation is not binding unless the parties agree to a settlement, but it resolves a surprising number of family conflicts, particularly when the real issue is grief and miscommunication rather than a genuine legal disagreement. Courts handling funeral and burial disputes frequently encourage mediation as a first step.