Updated September 5, 2026. Quick answer: Oregon is a genuine marriage-length sliding-scale state: the share rises with years married rather than sitting at one flat number. 5% (marriage under 2 years) rising in steps to 33% (marriage 15+ years); e.g. 10-11 years = 23%
What Oregon actually sets out
| What the statute sets out | What it says |
|---|---|
| Or. Rev. Stat. Sec. 114.600, 114.605 (amount) | “the amount of the elective share is a dollar amount determined by multiplying the augmented estate by the percentage” |
| The share and what it is measured against | 5% (marriage under 2 years) rising in steps to 33% (marriage 15+ years); e.g. 10-11 years = 23%; measured against augmented estate: decedent’s probate estate plus nonprobate transfers plus the surviving spouse’s own estate and nonprobate transfers. |
| Regime type | marriage-length sliding-scale percentage |
| Can it be waived | a written premarital/postmarital waiver provision exists (ORS 114.660); not independently fetched this session |
| Time limit to file | the petition to claim the elective share must be filed not later than 9 months after the death of the decedent |
How it works in practice
- The share is measured against augmented estate: decedent’s probate estate plus nonprobate transfers plus the surviving spouse’s own estate and nonprobate transfers.
- No. This state’s formula is deliberately built to reach revocable trusts, payable-on-death accounts and other lifetime transfers, precisely so the elective share cannot be defeated by moving assets out of probate before death.
- Waiver: A written premarital/postmarital waiver provision exists (ORS 114.660); not independently fetched this session.
- The election has to be affirmatively filed on a deadline: the petition to claim the elective share must be filed not later than 9 months after the death of the decedent.
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 Oregon specifically, and its own numbers above should be used instead of the calculator’s national default for a Oregon 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: The specific waiver statute was not fetched 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 Oregon 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.