Updated September 5, 2026. Quick answer: District of Columbia’s elective share is not the one-third-of-everything, marriage-length figure most national pages describe. the intestate share the surviving spouse/domestic partner would have taken, capped at one-half (1/2) of the net estate bequeathed and devised by the will
What the District of Columbia actually sets out
| What the statute sets out | What it says |
|---|---|
| D.C. Code Sec. 19-113 (renunciation/election) | “such share or interest in the real or personal property of the deceased spouse or deceased domestic partner as he would have taken if the deceased spouse or deceased domestic partner had died intestate, not to exceed one-half of the net estate bequeathed and devised by the will.” |
| The share and what it is measured against | the intestate share the surviving spouse/domestic partner would have taken, capped at one-half (1/2) of the net estate bequeathed and devised by the will; measured against the net estate bequeathed and devised by the will; probate-estate base capped at 1/2. |
| Regime type | a state-specific formula that does not fit the common patterns |
| Can it be waived | a valid antenuptial or postnuptial agreement controls over the statutory election |
| Time limit to file | written renunciation must be filed within 6 months after the will is admitted to probate; extendable in additional 6-month intervals |
How it works in practice
- The share is measured against the net estate bequeathed and devised by the will; probate-estate base capped at 1/2.
- Partially. This state’s formula is limited to the property described above, which does not reach a properly funded revocable trust the same way an augmented-estate state’s formula does, so trust planning can change the outcome here specifically, though it does not change the analysis in a state with an augmented-estate formula.
- Waiver: A valid antenuptial or postnuptial agreement controls over the statutory election.
- The election has to be affirmatively filed on a deadline: written renunciation must be filed within 6 months after the will is admitted to probate; extendable in additional 6-month intervals.
The national picture, including the Uniform Probate Code sliding-scale schedule that a minority of states actually use, is on the elective share calculator page; this page is the record for the District of Columbia specifically, and its own numbers above should be used instead of the calculator’s national default for a the District of Columbia estate. The one thing that reliably defeats an elective share in every state that has one is explained on whether a prenup can waive the elective share. A newly widowed reader working through the fuller list of irreversible decisions, of which this is one, can start from the surviving spouse checklist.
What this page does not settle
- This citation and figure were fetched directly from the state’s own official code site and read against the current text this session.
- A state can amend or repeal this section without the page around it changing, and a detail specific to a reader’s own situation, such as a pending divorce, a premarital agreement, or property held jointly with right of survivorship, can change which part of the statute actually applies.
- Whether a revocable trust changes the outcome in the District of Columbia is explained above; that answer is specific to this state and does not generalize to any other one.
- Every quotation here was read against the source on September 5, 2026. Nothing on this page is legal advice, and the exact dollar or percentage amount a court awards depends on facts this page cannot know.
Whether this statute reaches a given family’s actual facts is decided by a court, not by this page. Nothing here is legal advice, and no one should sign a waiver or forgo an election on the strength of a web page.
Sources
The sources above were retrieved and read against the state text on September 5, 2026. Every quotation on this page was checked against those bytes.