Updated September 5, 2026. Quick answer: Michigan’s elective share is not the one-third-of-everything, marriage-length figure most national pages describe. 1/2 of the sum or share that would have passed to the spouse had the decedent died intestate, reduced by 1/2 of the value of all property the spouse already derived from the decedent by means other than testate or intestate succession
What Michigan actually sets out
| What the statute sets out | What it says |
|---|---|
| MCL 700.2202 | “1/2 of the sum or share that would have passed to the spouse had the testator died intestate, reduced by 1/2 of the value of all property derived by the spouse from the decedent by any means other than testate or intestate succession upon the decedent’s death.” |
| The share and what it is measured against | 1/2 of the sum or share that would have passed to the spouse had the decedent died intestate, reduced by 1/2 of the value of all property the spouse already derived from the decedent by means other than testate or intestate succession; measured against an intestate-share calculation on the probate estate, with a subtractive offset for certain non-probate transfers already received; not a full augmented-estate inclusion. |
| Regime type | an intestate-share offset formula |
| Can it be waived | waivable, wholly or partially, before or after marriage, by a written contract signed after fair disclosure |
| Time limit to file | within 63 days after the deadline for presentment of claims, or within 63 days after service of the inventory, whichever is later |
How it works in practice
- The share is measured against an intestate-share calculation on the probate estate, with a subtractive offset for certain non-probate transfers already received; not a full augmented-estate inclusion.
- 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: Waivable, wholly or partially, before or after marriage, by a written contract signed after fair disclosure.
- The election has to be affirmatively filed on a deadline: within 63 days after the deadline for presentment of claims, or within 63 days after service of the inventory, whichever is later.
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 Michigan specifically, and its own numbers above should be used instead of the calculator’s national default for a Michigan 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: Official legislature.mi.gov returned a TLS error; text sourced from FindLaw’s mirror.
- 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 Michigan 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.