Updated September 5, 2026. Quick answer: Vermont’s elective share is not the one-third-of-everything, marriage-length figure most national pages describe. one-half (1/2) of the balance of the probate estate, after payment of allowances, claims, and expenses; no augmented-estate concept
What Vermont actually sets out
| What the statute sets out | What it says |
|---|---|
| 14 V.S.A. Sec. 319 (elective share) | “one-half of the balance of the probate estate, after the payment of allowances, claims, and expenses.” |
| The share and what it is measured against | one-half (1/2) of the balance of the probate estate, after payment of allowances, claims, and expenses; no augmented-estate concept; measured against probate estate only, net of allowances, claims and expenses. |
| Regime type | flat fraction, not tied to marriage length |
| Can it be waived | a surviving spouse may not elect against the will if they have waived the right to elect under 14 V.S.A. Sec. 323 |
| Time limit to file | written election must be filed within 4 months after the later of service of the notice of rights or service of the inventory |
How it works in practice
- The share is measured against probate estate only, net of allowances, claims and expenses.
- 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 surviving spouse may not elect against the will if they have waived the right to elect under 14 V.S.A. Sec. 323.
- The election has to be affirmatively filed on a deadline: written election must be filed within 4 months after the later of service of the notice of rights or service of the inventory.
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 Vermont specifically, and its own numbers above should be used instead of the calculator’s national default for a Vermont 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.vermont.gov returned a TLS chain error; text 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 Vermont 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.