Wills and probate in Wyoming

Key takeaway

Wyoming's wills and probate rules cover how a will is executed, how property passes when there is no will, how the surviving spouse's elective share works and which procedures apply to small estates. The Probate Code is to be liberally construed to make the decedent's intent effective in distributing property.

Wills and probate purpose

Wyoming's Probate Code is to be liberally construed to simplify and clarify the law concerning decedents' affairs and to make the decedent's intent effective in distributing property.

Wyoming permits will witnesses to appear through audio-video technology when they can see and hear the testator in real time and meet the stated safeguards. A separate provision recognizes holographic wills.

Intestate inheritance

Wyoming intestacy rules address inheritance when a decedent's estate is distributed under those rules. Dower and curtesy are abolished, and a spouse has no share in the other's intestate estate except as provided by statute.

Wyoming gives half-blood relatives the same inheritance share as whole-blood relatives.

A lifetime gift to an heir counts as an advancement only when the decedent declared it in a contemporaneous writing or the heir acknowledged it in writing. An adopted person is the adopting parent's child for inheritance, while adoption by a natural parent's spouse does not affect the child's relationship with that natural parent.

A surviving spouse of a Wyoming domiciliary has an elective share of one-half if there are no surviving issue or the spouse is a parent of any surviving issue. The share is one-fourth otherwise.

For a decedent who was not domiciled in Wyoming, the law of the decedent's domicile at death governs any surviving-spouse elective share in Wyoming property.

Small-estate procedures

Wyoming court guidance describes a small estate as the entire Wyoming estate, including real and personal property, worth no more than $400,000 on the date of death after debts are subtracted. The calculation subtracts the decedent's total debts on the date of death, including liens against real property.

Wyoming's summary real property distribution requires a value report prepared by someone with no legal interest in the property, such as a realtor or property appraiser. Court guidance notes that unknown heirs are common and that children of the decedent are distributees even if they were not raised in the same family.

Wyoming court guidance says signing a form with information that is not true may lead to criminal perjury charges, a felony punishable by imprisonment, a fine, or both.

Common questions

How does Wyoming treat half-siblings in intestate inheritance?

Wyoming gives relatives of the half blood the same inheritance share as relatives of the whole blood, so a half-sibling inherits on the same terms as a full sibling.