{"id":31,"date":"2026-08-15T11:40:25","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T11:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scintillawpthemes.com\/demo\/swp-attorney-pro\/2026\/08\/15\/how-illinois-handles-probate-when-there-is-no-will\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T11:40:25","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T11:40:25","slug":"how-illinois-handles-probate-when-there-is-no-will","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scintillawpthemes.com\/demo\/swp-attorney-pro\/2026\/08\/15\/how-illinois-handles-probate-when-there-is-no-will\/","title":{"rendered":"How Illinois handles probate when there is no will"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Dying without a will is called dying intestate, and Illinois has already written one for you. It is rarely the will you would have chosen.<\/p>\n<h2>Who inherits<\/h2>\n<p>If there is a spouse and descendants, the estate is split half to the spouse and half among the descendants. A spouse with no descendants takes everything; descendants with no spouse take everything in equal shares. Step-children and unmarried partners inherit nothing.<\/p>\n<h2>Who administers the estate<\/h2>\n<p>The court appoints an administrator, usually a close relative, who must post a surety bond \u2014 a cost a will can waive.<\/p>\n<h2>How long it takes<\/h2>\n<p>In Sangamon County a straightforward intestate estate typically runs nine to fifteen months, largely because of the six-month creditor claim period. Contested estates run considerably longer.<\/p>\n<h2>What avoids most of it<\/h2>\n<p>A simple will, correctly witnessed, plus beneficiary designations kept current on retirement accounts and life insurance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dying without a will is called dying intestate, and Illinois has already written one for you. It is rarely the will you would have&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-estates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scintillawpthemes.com\/demo\/swp-attorney-pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scintillawpthemes.com\/demo\/swp-attorney-pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scintillawpthemes.com\/demo\/swp-attorney-pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scintillawpthemes.com\/demo\/swp-attorney-pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scintillawpthemes.com\/demo\/swp-attorney-pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/scintillawpthemes.com\/demo\/swp-attorney-pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56,"href":"https:\/\/scintillawpthemes.com\/demo\/swp-attorney-pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions\/56"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scintillawpthemes.com\/demo\/swp-attorney-pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scintillawpthemes.com\/demo\/swp-attorney-pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scintillawpthemes.com\/demo\/swp-attorney-pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scintillawpthemes.com\/demo\/swp-attorney-pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}