Estate planning rules in South Carolina

Wills and inheritance

South Carolina's general will execution rule calls for a written will signed by the testator or at the testator's direction, with at least two witnesses to the signing or acknowledgment. South Carolina does not presume a contract against revocation from the execution of a joint will or mutual wills.

South Carolina gives a specific devisee the right to the specifically devised property remaining in the estate at death.

South Carolina counts a lifetime gift as an advancement against an heir's intestate share if the decedent declared the advancement in a contemporaneous signed writing or the heir acknowledged the advancement in a signed writing. South Carolina charges a debt owed to the decedent against the debtor's share alone. South Carolina does not count the debt against the debtor's issue if the debtor predeceases the decedent.

South Carolina permits a surviving spouse to claim exempt personal property up to $45,000, subject to conditions and priorities. South Carolina gives minor or dependent children that claim if no spouse survives.

Estate administration and distributions

South Carolina personal representatives are fiduciaries held to the trustee standard of care and settle and distribute estates under the probated will and probate code. South Carolina calls for concurrence by all co-personal representatives on estate administration acts unless the will provides otherwise.

South Carolina provides for distribution of estate assets in kind to the extent possible unless the will indicates a contrary intention, including a power of sale granted to the personal representative.

South Carolina's abatement order begins with property not disposed of by the will, followed by residuary devises, general devises and specific devises. South Carolina gives no preference between real and personal property in that order.

South Carolina permits competent successors to alter will or intestacy shares through a written contract signed by everyone affected. South Carolina subjects the agreement to creditor and taxing-authority rights and the personal representative's duties.

Powers of attorney and digital assets

South Carolina powers of attorney generally take effect upon execution. South Carolina conditions an agent's exercise of authority after the principal's incapacity on recording the power of attorney like a deed. South Carolina permits recording before or after incapacity.

South Carolina's digital-assets law applies to custodians when the user resides in South Carolina or resided there at death. South Carolina excludes an employer's digital asset used by an employee in the ordinary course of business.

South Carolina gives a user's modifiable online-tool direction about digital asset disclosure precedence over a contrary direction in a will, trust, power of attorney or other record.

Trust administration

South Carolina permits a trustee to resign with court approval or upon at least 30 days' written notice to qualified beneficiaries, the living settlor and all cotrustees.

South Carolina dispenses with a trustee bond, including for a court-appointed trustee, if the governing instrument directs otherwise.

South Carolina permits a court to allow compensation above or below the amount specified by a trust if the trustee's duties differ substantially from those contemplated or the specified compensation is unreasonably low or high.

South Carolina allocates ten percent of a trustee's receipts from a liquidating asset to income and the balance to principal.

Thresholds and rates change. Check the state's own current figures.

Common questions