Pursuant to the Indiana Code, surviving spouses have legal rights to renounce their inheritances in favor of their statutory elective shares. Based on the Uniform Probate Code, the Indiana Code contains an elective share allowance whereby one spouse cannot entirely disinherit the other in the absence of a valid nuptial or marital agreement. Thus, if you are an Indiana resident, and you are the surviving spouse without an inheritance under your deceased spouse’s will, you will receive an elective share of property if you exercise your statutory elective share rights. If you spouse left you a small inheritance in his will, you can disclaim or renounce your inheritance in favor of your statutory elective share. The Indiana Code provides for a statutory one-half share of the deceased spouse’s net estate in favor of a surviving spouse’s elective share right. However, the Indiana code limits the statutory 50 percent share to certain spouses. If you are a surviving spouse, but your deceased spouse was previously married, you will receive a smaller statutory share if you did not have children with your deceased spouse. In this case a surviving spouse who did not have children with her deceased spouse receives only one-third of his personal estate and a quarter of his real estate if her husband had children who survive him. To exercise your statutory elective share and to renounce your inherited share, you must do so within a strict limit under Indiana law. Indiana law requires you to exercise your elective share rights within 10 days of the time that other individuals can file claims to the decedent’s estate. Generally, the time limit is within three months after publication of the executor’s appointment within a newspaper of general circulation.
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