Florida Statute 732.102
“Spouse's share of intestate estate”
What it means
When a Florida resident dies without a will, §732.102 decides what the surviving spouse receives before anyone else takes a dollar. If neither spouse has children from outside the marriage, the spouse takes the entire intestate estate — the children inherit nothing until both parents are gone.
The moment either side of the family tree has a child from another relationship, the share changes: the spouse takes one-half, and the decedent's descendants split the other half.
- No descendants at all → the spouse takes everything.
- All descendants are shared by both spouses (and the spouse has no others) → the spouse still takes everything.
- The decedent left a child from another relationship → the spouse takes one-half.
- The spouse has a child from another relationship (even though all of the decedent's children are shared) → the spouse takes one-half.
- This governs only the intestate estate — property a will or beneficiary designation doesn't already control.
How it plays out
Most of the calls we get about §732.102 are blended-family surprises: a second marriage, no will, and a house the children from the first marriage expected to inherit. The statute is mechanical — it doesn't ask what anyone intended. We walk families through what the share actually is before anyone stakes out a position, because half the fights we see start from a wrong guess about this section.
Where this shows up
Pages on this site where § 732.102 does real work: