Relationships have evolved in recent decades. Many New Jersey households consist of cohabiting but unmarried couples, childfree marriages, single‑person households, divorced or never‑married parents, and beloved pets. However, New Jersey’s intestacy rules have not kept up, and can yield unsuitable outcomes for the nontraditional family. Without a valid estate plan, the State applies one-size‑fits‑all statutes that may bear little resemblance to the client’s relationships or wishes.
In the United States today, about 75% of couples live together before marriage, and many people have long-term relationships but never get married. Roughly 7 million couples in their 30s are married with no kids. There are almost 40 million one-person households, accounting for 29% of all U.S. households. About 66% of U.S. households own a pet. The prevalence of the non-nuclear family is clear, and while estate planning is important for everyone, it is especially important for those individuals and households that do not fit the “traditional” mold contemplated by intestacy laws. If a person passes away without a Will in New Jersey, their estate will pass according to the state’s intestate succession laws, regardless of the person’s wishes.
If an unmarried person with no descendants dies without a Will, N.J.S.A. 3B:5‑4 passes the entire estate to surviving parents; if there are no surviving parents, it then goes to siblings, then further out the blood‑relative ladder. For couples who are cohabitating or even engaged, but unmarried, the partner will receive nothing from the probate estate, even if they shared a life together for years. There is no “palimony” in New Jersey, and the intestacy laws do not recognize unmarried and unformalized partnerships. Likewise, single individuals may have charitable interests, best friends, or close relationships with family members not contemplated by the statute, but their estates would not pass according to those wishes without a valid personal estate plan.
Childfree married couples often assume everything goes to their spouse, but that is not the case under New Jersey law N.J.S.A. 3B:5‑3: if a married New Jersey resident dies without descendants but with a surviving parent, the statute sets forth a calculation by which the surviving spouse splits the estate with the deceased spouse’s parents. Around 25% of the probate estate will end up with the decedent’s parents, rather than the household the couple built together. A client who wishes to avoid this unexpected and perhaps archaic result can accomplish that goal with simple estate planning.
For those with children, when a minor child inherits under intestacy, the funds cannot be handed over to the minor; a court process is required to appoint a guardian of the property or similar arrangement until the child turns 18, and until then, the money is generally held in the county Surrogate’s Intermingled Trust Fund. Even worse, the child of an intestate parent has no established guardian of the person, which will force family members or friends into court to decide who will take care of the child; this might contradict the deceased parent’s wishes, or at minimum, will add hurdles and stress to an already difficult circumstance. That state‑supervised structure may be better than nothing, but it is rarely the thoughtful, long‑term plan parents imagine for their children’s physical wellbeing, education funding, housing, or staggered distributions into adulthood. By contrast, a Will or revocable trust can name a trusted fiduciary and guardian, set age‑based milestones, and avoid court involvement.
In New Jersey, pets are treated as property and not as the furry family members people often consider them to be. Because pets have no heirship rights, no funds will be set aside for pets under intestate law, and whoever stands to inherit the client’s personal property effectively decides the pet’s fate, which could be at odds with what the client would have chosen.
In any of the above situations, dying without an estate plan also means that the State determines who administers the client’s estate. This can lead to disagreement or uncertainty for family and cause assets to languish while the court decides who the administrator will be.
Estate planning is ultimately about control: choosing who raises the kids, who cares for the pets, who manages the property, and who benefits from what the client has built. A well‑crafted Will, revocable trust, and—for parents—clear guardianship and pet‑care instructions put those decisions in the client’s hands instead of leaving them to the State.