Under NY intestate succession, if there is a surviving spouse and no children or issue, who inherits the entire estate?

• A. The surviving spouse
• B. The issue
• C. The state's heirs
• D. The deceased’s parents

Answer: (A)

If someone dies without a will in New York and there are surviving spouses but no descendants, the spouse takes the entire estate. Here, “issue” means lineal descendants like children or grandchildren. Since there are no children or issue, there’s no one else in the line of succession to share the estate, so the surviving spouse inherits everything. The only time the spouse wouldn’t get all is when there are issue; then the estate is split between the spouse and the issue.