The decision to go through probate, or use a small estate transfer process doesn’t change whether your loved one had a will or not.  It is based on the type of assets and their value. However, the determination of who will be heirs is different if your loved one dies without a will.  In that case, the rules of “intestate succession” will be used to figure out who their legal heirs are.  You should always talk with a lawyer who can go through the family tree with you and advise you as to who might inherit under the rules of intestate succession as this is a complicated plan.  That said, here is a very general idea of who those heirs might be:   Spouses will receive between 50% and 100% of the estate, depending on whether the person who died had children or parents who were living when they died.  However, there is an exception if the deceased person had children living, but those children were not their spouse’s children.  In that case, the spouse would only receive 25% of the net value of any real estate, plus a percentage of the personal property.   Anything that doesn’t go to a spouse, will go to the children of the person that died.     If there aren’t any living children, then everything other than a spouse’s share would go their parents, siblings or other close relatives.  There is a priority scheme in the statute to determine which of these other relatives would inherit and what percentages they would get.