Probate in Louisiana: What Your Family Goes Through Without a Will
Louisiana is the only state built on a civil law system rather than common law, so the process here is called a succession, not probate, and it works differently from every other state. If the deceased does not have a valid testament (Louisiana's word for a will), the estate passes through intestate succession, with a few exceptions.
- Life insurance policies with a beneficiary
- Retirement accounts with a beneficiary
- Bank or brokerage accounts with a payable-on-death or transfer-on-death designation.
If none of these apply, an estate without a testament goes through succession in Louisiana. If the estate is valued at $200,000 or less, heirs can use a small succession affidavit and skip court entirely.
Succession Laws Without a Will in Louisiana
Louisiana is one of nine community property states, meaning property acquired during the marriage generally belongs equally to both spouses. Louisiana also has a feature found nowhere else in this country called forced heirship. Descendants who are 23 or younger, or permanently incapacitated at any age, are entitled to a protected share of the estate, called the legitime, that a testament generally cannot override.
If none of the exceptions above apply, the estate is distributed according to Louisiana's Civil Code as follows.
- If you are married with descendants, your spouse keeps their own half of the community property and receives a usufruct, essentially the lifetime right to use, over your half. Your descendants own your half of the community property outright once the usufruct ends and inherit all of your separate property.
- If you are married with living parents but no descendants, your spouse inherits all of your community property. Your parents inherit your separate property.
- If you are married with siblings but no parents or descendants, your spouse inherits all of your community property. Your siblings inherit your separate property.
- If you have descendants but no spouse, your descendants inherit your entire estate.
- If you are married with both living parents and siblings but no descendants, your spouse inherits all of your community property. Your siblings inherit your separate property, subject to a usufruct (lifetime right to use) in favor of your surviving parent(s).
Louisiana Succession Process
Succession in Louisiana is handled by the district court of the parish where the deceased lived, or the Civil District Court for Orleans Parish in New Orleans. Louisiana has neither a state estate tax nor an inheritance tax, having repealed its inheritance tax for deaths on or after July 1, 2004.
Avoiding Succession Court in Louisiana
There are a few reliable ways to keep assets out of probate court entirely.
- Put your assets in a revocable living trust, though Louisiana courts treat revocable trust assets as still part of your estate when calculating the legitime owed to forced heirs, so a trust doesn't eliminate forced heirship.
- Place beneficiary designations on financial and retirement accounts. A payable-on-death (POD) designation will specify who receives payment upon your death. A transfer-on-death (TOD) designation names a new owner for those accounts when you die.
- Louisiana does not recognize joint tenancy with right of survivorship the way most states do — co-owned property (outside of marriage) is typically owned "in indivision," and a deceased co-owner's share still passes through succession to their own heirs rather than automatically to the surviving co-owner. To achieve a similar automatic-transfer effect, Louisianans generally rely on beneficiary designations, a trust, or (between spouses) the community property regime itself.
