Updated September 5, 2026. Quick answer: Indiana’s elective share is not the one-third-of-everything, marriage-length figure most national pages describe. general rule: 1/2 of the net personal and real estate; blended-family exception (second-or-later spouse, decedent has descendants not of that spouse): 1/3 of the net personal estate plus 25% of the remainder of the real estate’s value, less liens
What Indiana actually sets out
| What the statute sets out | What it says |
|---|---|
| Ind. Code Sec. 29-1-3-1 | “one-half (1/2) of the net personal and real estate of the testator” |
| The share and what it is measured against | general rule: 1/2 of the net personal and real estate; blended-family exception (second-or-later spouse, decedent has descendants not of that spouse): 1/3 of the net personal estate plus 25% of the remainder of the real estate’s value, less liens; measured against the decedent’s net personal and real estate, net of debts/claims; probate estate. |
| Regime type | flat fraction, not tied to marriage length |
| Can it be waived | the spouse’s share can be waived at any time by written contract; a promise of marriage is sufficient consideration before marriage, full disclosure required after |
| Time limit to file | election must be made no later than 3 months after the order admitting the will to probate |
How it works in practice
- The share is measured against the decedent’s net personal and real estate, net of debts/claims; probate estate.
- The statute’s own text does not resolve this cleanly one way or the other for a revocable trust; this page does not take a position on trust planning in this state and a reader should not assume either answer without checking current case law.
- Waiver: The spouse’s share can be waived at any time by written contract; a promise of marriage is sufficient consideration before marriage, full disclosure required after.
- The election has to be affirmatively filed on a deadline: election must be made no later than 3 months after the order admitting the will to probate.
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 Indiana specifically, and its own numbers above should be used instead of the calculator’s national default for a Indiana 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 session confirmed the core figure above against a primary or verbatim-mirror source, with one open point: Indiana’s own iga.in.gov statute page could not be read directly this session; the quote and citation above were verified against FindLaw’s mirror of the same code section instead.
- 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 Indiana 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.