What to Do When Your Spouse Dies

There's no deadline. Most people wait a few months before addressing their own documents — that's fine. The exception: if you have health concerns or upcoming travel, updating your powers of attorney and healthcare directive sooner ensures someone has authority to act on your behalf.

A will goes through probate — a court-supervised process that can take six months to a year, requires legal filings, and becomes public record. A trust passes assets directly to beneficiaries with no court involvement. If you shared a trust with your spouse, most of the work is already done; if there's a will, you can estimate probate costs up front.

Frequently not. Everything you owned jointly passes to you by survivorship, everything naming you as beneficiary pays you directly, and transfer-on-death registrations do the same — none of it touches a court, regardless of the amount. What is left in your spouse's name alone is what probate would cover, and that residue is often under the state's small-estate limit, which ranges from $15,000 to $400,000. Check whether probate is required before you assume it is, and if the estate qualifies you may be able to collect it with an affidavit instead.

Portability lets you inherit your spouse's unused federal estate tax exemption — up to $15,000,00026 USC 2001(c), 2010; P.L. 119-21 §70106Verified Jul 13, 2026View source — on top of your own. The catch is that it is not automatic: it must be elected on a federal estate tax return filed for your spouse's estate, even though no tax is due (26 U.S.C. § 2010(c)(5)). Because no tax is owed, most families never file, and the exemption evaporates. If your combined assets are anywhere near the threshold, or you expect them to grow, ask your accountant whether filing to preserve it is worth the cost — this is a decision with a deadline, not one to revisit later.

Far less than you would expect, and possibly nothing. The half you inherit gets a stepped-up basis to its date-of-death value, so the appreciation that accrued during the marriage is not taxed to you. In the 9 community property states the step-up applies to both halves, which can erase decades of gain entirely. Get a date-of-death appraisal before you sell — it is the document that proves your basis — and estimate the step-up before you list.

Not immediately, but don't leave it indefinitely. Jointly-held accounts often pass automatically to the surviving owner, but you'll still need to update the title. Assets in your spouse's name alone may require probate or a trust administration process before they're fully yours. Start with accounts you actively use.

As a surviving spouse, you have options most other beneficiaries don't. You can roll an inherited IRA or 401(k) into your own retirement account and treat it as yours — no required distributions until your own RMD age. Alternatively, you can keep it as an inherited account. A financial advisor can help you decide which makes sense for your tax situation.

Start with a list: bank accounts, credit cards, investment accounts, retirement accounts, insurance policies, recurring bills. Check your spouse's email and mail for statements. Your spouse's financial advisor, accountant, or attorney may have records. You don't have to figure it all out at once — just get visibility into what exists.