Also known as: kin · next of kin
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
Blood relatives of a decedent. The class of persons who succeed to an intestate estate under statutes that distribute property to the nearest kindred when no spouse or descendants survive.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Kira Kapoor's will left her estate to her relatives. After her death the probate court applied the governing instrument directly to her surviving cousins rather than returning the property to her estate as a reversion.
After Lena Morales died without a will or surviving spouse, the probate court identified her nearest kindred under the state statute and distributed the estate to her first cousins.
Robert Klein's trust directed distribution to his kindred upon the life tenant's death. The court determined the beneficiaries by applying the intestacy statute in effect at distribution.
When Paul Ortega died intestate, the administrator searched and found no surviving kindred. The court ordered the estate to escheat to the state.
Susan Patel left no descendants. The court passed her estate per capita to the nearest kindred determined by the civil-law method of counting degrees.
A deed conveyed land to the grantor's kindred. Because the doctrine of worthier title is abolished, the court refused to imply a reversion in the grantor.
No. Under the Uniform Probate Code the doctrine of worthier title is abolished. Language describing beneficiaries as relatives or family does not create or presumptively create a reversionary interest.
Supporting sources
Most statutes pass the estate per capita to the nearest kindred determined by the civil-law method. The estate escheats only if the decedent leaves no surviving kindred at all.
Supporting sources
No. The Uniform Probate Code excludes future interests to kindred from the substitute-gift rule that otherwise applies to class gifts.
Supporting sources
…Yorburg, supra , n. 4, at 108. "Within the black lower-class it has been quite common for several generations, or parts of the kin, to live together under one roof. Often a maternal grandmother is the acknowledged head of this type of household which has given rise to the term matrifocal' to describe lower-class black…