Do I need a will if I am married?
Yes. In many states a spouse does not automatically inherit everything.
The short answer
Yes. In many US states a surviving spouse does not inherit the whole estate under intestacy: children, and sometimes parents, take a share. Marriage also confers no authority over a spouse’s solely owned accounts during incapacity, which is what powers of attorney are for.
The assumption that marriage handles it is the most common reason married couples have nothing written down, and it is wrong in most states in at least one important respect.
What intestacy actually gives a spouse
It varies by state and by family shape. Many states give a surviving spouse the whole estate only where there are no children and no surviving parents. Where there are children, particularly from a previous relationship, the estate is commonly split.
That split is where the family home becomes a problem: an asset shared between a surviving spouse and adult children from a first marriage is the classic contested estate.
What marriage does not give you
Authority over your spouse’s solely owned accounts, retirement plans or property while they are alive but incapacitated. Banks decline these conversations daily and are correct to.
Both powers of attorney are the fix, and they matter for married couples exactly as much as for anybody else.
Guardianship still needs a will
If both parents die, the guardian appointment lives in a will and nowhere else. This is often the real reason a married couple with young children needs one.
Mirror wills, where each spouse leaves to the other and then to the children, with the same guardian named in both, are the ordinary arrangement.
And the forms, again
Retirement plans governed by federal law often default to a spouse and require spousal consent to name somebody else. Life insurance does not. Check both.
A blended family should treat beneficiary designations as the first thing to review, not the last.
Questions people also ask
Does my spouse automatically get the house?
It depends on how the deed reads. Joint tenancy with right of survivorship passes to the survivor automatically; tenants in common does not. Check the deed rather than assuming.
Do married couples need separate wills?
Yes, each person signs their own. Mirror wills are two documents with matching terms. Joint wills, a single document for both, are rarely used and can create problems for the survivor.
What is a spousal elective share?
A statutory right in many states allowing a surviving spouse to claim a portion of the estate regardless of what the will says. It is one reason a will and a marital agreement have to be consistent with each other.
Legacy Buddy provides document creation tools, not legal advice.
Knowing what to do is the hard part. This is the easy part.
Joining is free and stays free: your LQ™ Score, your recommendations and your vault, with no card. A plan is for when you want the documents themselves.
Free forever. No card. You pay only when you want documents.