§ 11.04.015 Descent and distribution of real and personal estate
§ 11.04.035 Kindred of the half blood
§ 11.04.041 Advancements
§ 11.04.060 Tenancy in dower and by curtesy abolished
§ 11.04.071 Survivorship as incident of tenancy by the entireties abolished
§ 11.04.081 Inheritance by and from any child not dependent upon marriage of parents
§ 11.04.085 Inheritance by adopted child
§ 11.04.095 Inheritance from stepparent avoids escheat
§ 11.04.230 United States savings bond — Effect of death of co-owner
§ 11.04.240 United States savings bond — Effect of beneficiary’s survival of registered owner
§ 11.04.250 When real estate vests — Rights of heirs
§ 11.04.290 Vesting of title
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Terms Used In Washington Code > Chapter 11.04 - Descent and distribution

  • Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. Source: OCC
  • Decedent: A deceased person.
  • Degree of kinship: means the degree of kinship as computed according to the rules of the civil law; that is, by counting upward from the intestate to the nearest common ancestor and then downward to the relative, the degree of kinship being the sum of these two counts. See Washington Code 11.02.005
  • Devise: To gift property by will.
  • Dower: A widow
  • Escheat: Reversion of real or personal property to the state when 1) a person dies without leaving a will and has no heirs, or 2) when the property (such as a bank account) has been inactive for a certain period of time. Source: OCC
  • Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
  • Inter vivos: Transfer of property from one living person to another living person.
  • Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
  • Issue: means all the lineal descendants of an individual. See Washington Code 11.02.005
  • Joint tenancy: A form of property ownership in which two or more parties hold an undivided interest in the same property that was conveyed under the same instrument at the same time. A joint tenant can sell his (her) interest but not dispose of it by will. Upon the death of a joint tenant, his (her) undivided interest is distributed among the surviving joint tenants.
  • Net estate: refers to the real and personal property of a decedent exclusive of homestead rights, exempt property, the family allowance and enforceable claims against, and debts of, the deceased or the estate. See Washington Code 11.02.005
  • person: may be construed to include the United States, this state, or any state or territory, or any public or private corporation or limited liability company, as well as an individual. See Washington Code 1.16.080
  • Personal representative: includes executor, administrator, special administrator, and conservator or limited conservator and special representative. See Washington Code 11.02.005
  • Real estate: includes , except as otherwise specifically provided herein, all lands, tenements, and hereditaments, and all rights thereto, and all interest therein possessed and claimed in fee simple, or for the life of a third person. See Washington Code 11.02.005
  • Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
  • Representation: refers to a method of determining distribution in which the takers are in unequal degrees of kinship with respect to a decedent, and is accomplished as follows: After first determining who, of those entitled to share in the estate, are in the nearest degree of kinship, the estate is divided into equal shares, the number of shares being the sum of the number of persons who survive the decedent who are in the nearest degree of kinship and the number of persons in the same degree of kinship who died before the decedent but who left issue surviving the decedent; each share of a deceased person in the nearest degree must be divided among those of the deceased person's issue who survive the decedent and have no ancestor then living who is in the line of relationship between them and the decedent, those more remote in degree taking together the share which their ancestor would have taken had he or she survived the decedent. See Washington Code 11.02.005
  • Right of survivorship: The ownership rights that result in the acquisition of title to property by reason of having survived other co-owners.