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What Happens If You Don't Have a Will?

Automobiles

If you die without a will and have a surviving spouse, your vehicle will automatically pass to your spouse.

If you have more than one vehicle, your spouse can choose one to keep. The others will be distributed according to the intestacy laws.
If a person dies without a will, they are said to die "intestate." Most people would prefer that there closest living relatives inherit from them. Oklahoma's intestacy laws are based on this common preference.

Although the statutes are a bit more complicated, generally the law gives preference to relatives in the following order:
  • spouses and children, grandchildren, etc.
  • parents
  • brothers and sisters
  • grandparents
  • next of kin
It is NOT true that the state will take property of persons who die without a will. The state will only receive property if the person died without living relatives, which happens very infrequently.

See 84 O.S. § 213 for more information on how the law will distribute property if there is no will.