Elective share

When someone gets married and one of them dies, the law usually says that the person who died's stuff goes to their spouse. But sometimes, the person who died has kids from a different marriage or wants to give their stuff to someone else. That's where something called an "elective share" comes into play.

Basically, an elective share is a rule that says if someone gets married and their spouse dies, the surviving spouse has the right to a certain amount of the dead spouse's stuff. This amount is usually a percentage of everything the dead spouse owned, like their money and their property.

So even if the person who died said in their will that they wanted everything to go to someone else, like their kids from a previous marriage, the surviving spouse can choose to take their elective share instead. It's like a safety net for the surviving spouse so that they don't get left without anything after their partner dies.

The exact amount of the elective share can vary depending on where you live, but it's usually somewhere between one-third and one-half of everything the dead spouse owned. It can also depend on how long the marriage lasted and if there are any children involved.

So, in summary, the elective share is a rule that helps make sure that when someone gets married, their spouse will still get some of their stuff if they die, no matter what the will says.