In South Carolina, sweet tea is non-negotiable. You drink it at every meal, you offer it to guests, you serve it at funerals. There are rules. There is a way things are done.
Estate planning, though? Apparently optional.
You die somewhere between Charleston and Greenville without a will, and suddenly the state of South Carolina steps in with its own set of rules — the ones nobody told you about, the ones that don’t care about your intentions, your family dynamics, or the very specific conversation you had with your daughter two years ago about who gets the beach house. South Carolina’s intestacy laws aren’t cruel, exactly. They’re just completely indifferent to everything that actually matters.
Your sweet tea preferences made it to every family gathering. Your estate wishes? They died with you.
Here’s what happens next.
South Carolina’s Intestate Succession Law
South Carolina’s intestacy rules are found in the South Carolina Probate Code, Title 62 of the South Carolina Code of Laws. South Carolina adopted its own Probate Code in 1987, borrowing heavily from the Uniform Probate Code while keeping some state-specific variations.
The basic distribution:
Married with children:
- Your spouse gets 1/2 of your intestate estate.
- Your children split the remaining 1/2 equally, per stirpes.
- This is true whether your children are from your current marriage or a prior relationship.
Married with no children:
- Your spouse inherits everything.
Single with children:
- Your children inherit everything equally, per stirpes.
Single, no children, no spouse:
- Your parents inherit equally. If one parent is dead, the survivor inherits everything.
- If both parents are dead: siblings (and descendants of deceased siblings) split it.
- Beyond that: grandparents, then their descendants (aunts, uncles, cousins).
Blended families:
The 50/50 split between spouse and children is particularly rough for blended families. Say you have three kids from your first marriage and a spouse from your second. Your spouse gets 50%. Your three kids split 50% — each getting about 16.7% of everything. Your spouse and stepchildren now share ownership in real estate, bank accounts, and other assets. Forced co-ownership between people who may not be on great terms is a classic probate disaster.
Common law marriage:
South Carolina is one of the last states to recognize common law marriage — with a significant catch. South Carolina abolished common law marriage for new relationships formed after July 24, 2019. If you entered a common law marriage before that date, it remains legally valid, and your common law spouse has full intestate inheritance rights. If your relationship started after that date, you’re just a couple and the state gives your partner nothing.
What Probate Looks Like in South Carolina
South Carolina runs probate through the Probate Court in each county. Unlike some states that use general trial courts for probate matters, South Carolina has dedicated probate courts at the county level — so the court’s staff actually knows what they’re doing.
Timeline: Standard South Carolina probate runs 8-12 months. The 8-month creditor notice period is mandatory — creditors who are notified have 8 months to file claims (or 1 year from date of death, whichever is shorter). This sets a hard minimum on probate duration regardless of how simple the estate is.
Costs: South Carolina attorney fees and personal representative fees are based on a percentage of the estate’s “inventory value.” A combined total of 3-5% is typical. On a $400,000 estate, that’s $12,000-$20,000 in fees.
Small estate procedure: South Carolina allows a simplified affidavit process for estates where total assets (excluding real property and jointly-held assets) are $25,000 or less. Real estate always goes through full probate.
Elective share:
This is specifically relevant if you do have a will that cuts out your spouse: South Carolina gives a surviving spouse the right to claim an “elective share” — 1/3 of your estate — regardless of what your will says. Intestacy law also builds in spousal protection, but the elective share is the statutory floor for spouses even against an explicit disinheritance.
South Carolina-Specific Quirks
The common law marriage cutoff:
South Carolina’s phaseout of common law marriage is a real trap. Couples who have been together for years — maybe decades — may have assumed they had common law marriage protection because they heard South Carolina recognized it. If the relationship began after July 24, 2019, they don’t. And without registration or a will, the surviving partner gets nothing.
The elective share for spouses:
If you die intestate, your spouse already gets 50% under the default rules. But South Carolina’s elective share provisions (relevant for wills that disinherit a spouse) underscore how seriously the state takes protecting surviving spouses. The intestacy rules reflect this same priority — spouses are heavily favored.
Beach property complications:
South Carolina has significant coastal and vacation property — the barrier islands, the Lowcountry, the Upstate lakes. Beach and vacation homes are often not the primary residence, sometimes owned without spouses’ names on the deed, and often informally discussed as “going to” specific family members. None of those conversations create legal rights. Under intestacy, the beach house goes to whomever the statute dictates, divided into fractional co-ownership among all heirs.
No estate or inheritance tax:
South Carolina is genuinely tax-friendly for inheritance. There’s no state estate tax and no state inheritance tax. Federal estate tax (exemption: $13.6 million in 2026) is unlikely to affect most South Carolinians. Your heirs keep what they get.
Personal representative preference:
Without a will, the court appoints an administrator from a prioritized list: surviving spouse first, then adult children, then parents, then siblings. If multiple parties want the role, they compete for it. Court proceedings to decide who manages the estate add cost and delay.
How to Avoid This
South Carolina has a clean, functional Probate Court system and no state death taxes. The only problem is intestacy — the state’s default rules that kick in when you don’t have a will.
Those rules split your estate 50/50 between your spouse and kids. They co-own your beach house. They ignore your common law partner if the relationship started post-2019. They divide property among all biological children equally, regardless of your actual relationships with them.
A will at Killswitch costs $69. You decide who gets the beach house. You name the executor. You protect your partner. You eliminate the 50/50 co-ownership trap.
Sweet tea has a recipe. So does a good estate plan. The difference is that one of them you can make right now for $69.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Q: My spouse and I have kids from different prior marriages. How does South Carolina split my estate?
A: Under intestacy, your spouse gets half and your children (from all relationships, including prior marriages) split the other half equally. Your stepchildren — your spouse’s kids from a prior marriage that you didn’t adopt — inherit nothing from you under intestacy. Only biological or legally adopted children are heirs. A will lets you decide what, if anything, your stepchildren receive.
Q: Does South Carolina still recognize common law marriage?
A: Only if the relationship was established before July 24, 2019. Common law marriages formed after that date are not legally recognized in South Carolina. If your common law marriage predates the cutoff, your common law spouse has full inheritance rights equal to a formally married spouse. If your relationship started after July 2019 and you haven’t formally married, your partner has no intestate inheritance rights.
Q: How long does South Carolina probate actually take?
A: At minimum, 8 months — that’s the mandatory creditor claim period under South Carolina law. Most estates close in 8-12 months for simple cases. Estates with real property disputes, complex assets, or multiple heirs can run 12-24 months or longer.
Q: Is there any way to avoid probate in South Carolina without a trust?
A: Yes, partially. Assets with named beneficiaries (life insurance, retirement accounts, payable-on-death bank accounts, transfer-on-death deeds for real estate) pass outside probate entirely. A well-designed estate plan uses beneficiary designations, joint ownership, and POD/TOD designations to minimize what actually goes through probate. A will still governs whatever’s left.
Q: What’s South Carolina’s “elective share” for surviving spouses?
A: If you die with a will that gives your spouse less than 1/3 of your estate, your spouse can claim the “elective share” — they elect to take 1/3 of the estate instead of what the will says. Under intestacy (no will), the spouse already gets 50%, so the elective share is rarely relevant in intestate situations. It’s more of a protection against deliberate disinheritance by will.
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