A Deceased Spouse's Unclaimed Money — the Surviving Spouse's Claim

Your chain

The certified death certificate — order several copies; banks, the state, and the SSA all ask.
Your marriage certificate — your kinship proof. If your name today differs from the name on it, add the bridge paper.
Your ID and Social Security proof, plus your spouse's Social Security number (the funeral home's file and past joint tax returns are the usual sources).
The authority paper — and here spouses get lanes other heirs don't (next section).
The claim form, signed. If your spouse's children from another relationship are also heirs to part of the estate, the state may still need their signatures for their shares — the checker's heirs question covers this.

The spouse lanes

Higher caps: several states let a surviving spouse use the simplified affidavit at a higher figure than other heirs — Maryland's small-estate lane doubles to $100,000 for a sole-heir spouse; Ohio's summary release reaches $100,000 where the spouse is the sole heir; North Carolina's affidavit rises to $30,000; Nevada has a spouse set-aside route to $100,000.
Community-property states (AZ, CA, ID, LA, NV, NM, TX, WA, WI): half of community property was already yours — say so in the claim; it changes what the "estate" even is.
Joint accounts that never escheated: if an account still sits at the bank in both names, that's a bank conversation, not a state claim — survivor ownership usually applies. The state claim is for property the holder already handed over.

Cap figures for the spouse lanes follow the state rows in our dataset — the ones not yet primary-verified are flagged there, and the state's own publication controls.

Two spouse-specific warnings

The will can reroute everything. If your spouse's will left property to others, the state honors the will's line, not the family tree — the executor files. And the second-death trap: money that surfaces after both spouses have died is claimed by the children through two death certificates and two chains — if that's your situation now, the two-generation page is the map.

Run your own claim. The free checker takes your state, your relationship, and your amount — and returns the probate-skip verdict, your document chain in order, the signatures you'll need, and the finder fee you'd avoid. Run the checker →

The working papers for this claim

The pages above are the map. The kit is the paperwork: the per-state checklists, the Table of Heirs worksheet, the letters that line up every heir's signature, and the chapter for the state's reply.

Included in the $39 MoneyLeftBehind Kit

The per-state chain checklists: the exact document ladder for your state and your relationship, in order — which certificate, which form, which signature — with the state-specific rungs (Texas's tiers, New York's Table of Heirs, Florida's all-beneficiaries rule) built in
The vital-records ordering guide: how to order certified death, birth, and marriage certificates — who is allowed to order each one, what ID it takes, the fastest door in each state, and the fees to expect
The probate-skip decision worksheets: affidavit vs. summary administration vs. full probate, state by state, with the math run against your state's cap — including California's date-of-death bands
The deficiency and rejection recovery chapter: how to read the state's 'we need more' letter, fix the exact gap (wrong certificate, stale court letters, a missing generation), and resubmit so the claim lands the second time

Get the $39 MoneyLeftBehind Kit

One payment, yours to keep. We never file for you and never touch your money — you file everything yourself, with the state. See everything inside the kit →

Your spouse died. Is the state holding their money?

Your chain

The spouse lanes

Two spouse-specific warnings

The working papers for this claim

Included in the $39 MoneyLeftBehind Kit

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