Updated September 5, 2026. Quick answer: Rhode Island’s elective share is not the one-third-of-everything, marriage-length figure most national pages describe. a life estate in the decedent’s individually-titled real estate, plus the surviving spouse’s intestate share of the personal estate; no percentage of a total estate is specified
What Rhode Island actually sets out
| What the statute sets out | What it says |
|---|---|
| R.I. Gen. Laws Sec. 33-28-1 (elective share) | “The life estate and allowance in an intestate’s real estate titled in the name of the decedent individually at the time of the decedent’s death… The share of the decedent’s personal estate subject to probate pursuant to § 33-1-10.” |
| The share and what it is measured against | a life estate in the decedent’s individually-titled real estate, plus the surviving spouse’s intestate share of the personal estate; no percentage of a total estate is specified; measured against the decedent’s individually-titled real estate (life estate) and personal estate subject to probate (share); probate-estate-only, no augmented-estate provision. |
| Regime type | a life estate plus an intestate share, not a percentage |
| Can it be waived | waivable wholly or partially, before or after marriage, by a signed written contract, enforceable without consideration |
| Time limit to file | generally within 6 months after first publication of the fiduciary’s qualification, extendable up to 9 months after death |
How it works in practice
- The share is measured against the decedent’s individually-titled real estate (life estate) and personal estate subject to probate (share); probate-estate-only, no augmented-estate provision.
- 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: Waivable wholly or partially, before or after marriage, by a signed written contract, enforceable without consideration.
- The election has to be affirmatively filed on a deadline: generally within 6 months after first publication of the fiduciary’s qualification, extendable up to 9 months after death.
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 Rhode Island specifically, and its own numbers above should be used instead of the calculator’s national default for a Rhode Island 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 Rhode Island 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.