The Method, Process and Frequency of Wealth Transmission at Death

Abstract

T HE laws of intestate succession are frequently asserted to be governed by the principle when a man dies without a will the law should try to provide so far as possible for the distribution of his estate in the manner he would most likely have given effect to himself if he had made a will.' If this is the true objective of the laws of intestate succession, then this is a unique area in which quantitative research based on experience can be useful in the legislative process. In England a committee on inquiry into the laws of succession, first in 1925, and then again in 1951,2 examined a sample of wills, in rewriting the intestate succession laws, in order to infer what persons who do not have wills would be most likely to want.3 Information gained from a study of probate court records for Cook County, Illinois, is reported and analyzed here for the purpose, among others, of determining the significance of actual practice as a basis for law reform. Ninety-seven estates for which probate proceedings were initiated in 1953, and 73 estates for decedents who died in 1957 are the basis of this study. The years listed were chosen only because of the likelihood that estates of 1953 and 1957 would have been terminated at the time the research was undertaken in 1959-1960. The 1953 sample was obtained from a random selection of estates opened in Cook County in 1953.4 A more complicated procedure was used to obtain the 1957 sample of 73 estates. Instead of selecting this sample directly from Probate Court records, death certificates were used to obtain the sample.