Who are heirs? Interested parties?

There are some terms that describe people involved with a decedent's estate that are important to understand the difference between - heir, beneficiary, interested party, devisee.

HEIR
We will start with an heir. An heir is determined by law and is a lineal progression of the decedent's relatives. Heirs are important when there is no Will or Trust in order to determine who is legally entitled to the decedent's property (after any required debts and expenses are paid in the case of a probate estate). When a person dies without a Will we say they died "intestate". Thus, the following is intestate succession:

Decedent
Level 1: Surviving Spouse
Level 2: Children (including adopted children but not step-children if not legally adopted by decedent)
Level 3: Grandchildren
Level 4: Parents of Decedent
Level 5: Brothers and Sisters of Decedent
Level 6: Nieces and Nephews of Decedent
Level 7: Grandparents of Decedent
Level 8: Deceased Spouse's Side of the Family
...

For example, if Decedent dies without a Will then all of the decedent's property goes to the Surviving Spouse, (if alive aka "surviving"). If there is no surviving spouse, then all of decedent's property goes to the decedent's children (split equally between them) and so on.

In order to be qualified as an heir, the person must survive the decedent by more than 120 hours.

*When dealing with a larger value of property to distribute other laws may come into play as far as how much of that value goes to the heir and is split with the next heir in line. Seek the advice of an attorney if the value of the distribution is greater than $200,000.

BENEFICIARY
A beneficiary is a person who is named on a document to automatically become the owner of the property upon the death of the decedent. For example, you can name beneficiaries to a life insurance policy or to a bank account. Anytime a beneficiary is named, this particular property is not subject to the probate court and the beneficiary automatically becomes the new owner upon the decedent's death.

INTERESTED PARTY
Sometimes a family member is not named in the Will but is a direct heir at law and thus is an interested party. Interested parties only come into play during a probate estate. Interested parties are entitled to receive notice of probate proceedings. Creditors of the decedent's estate are also considered interested parties as they have a direct interest in the distribution of any assets since they want to be paid.

DEVISEE
When filing an application or petition to open a probate estate in Michigan, you will need to designate those individuals who are found in the Will but who are not a direct heir at law to the decedent - they are called nonheir devisees. For example, a man dies leaving a surviving spouse and children but writes in his Will that his friend Joe Shmoe gets $10,000. Joe Shmoe is a nonheir devisee.