Updated September 5, 2026. Quick answer: Wyoming’s elective share is not the one-third-of-everything, marriage-length figure most national pages describe. 1/2 if there is no surviving issue of the decedent, or if the surviving spouse is also a parent of the decedent’s surviving issue; 1/4 if the surviving spouse is not the parent of any of the decedent’s surviving issue
What Wyoming actually sets out
| What the statute sets out | What it says |
|---|---|
| Wyo. Stat. Ann. Sec. 2-5-101 | “One-half (1/2) if there are no surviving issue of the decedent, or if the surviving spouse is also a parent of any of the surviving issue of the decedent… One-fourth (1/4), if the surviving spouse is not the parent of any surviving issue of the decedent.” |
| The share and what it is measured against | 1/2 if there is no surviving issue of the decedent, or if the surviving spouse is also a parent of the decedent’s surviving issue; 1/4 if the surviving spouse is not the parent of any of the decedent’s surviving issue; measured against property subject to disposition under the will, reduced by funeral and administration expenses, homestead allowance, family allowances and exemption, and enforceable claims; the net probate estate, no augmented-estate pull-in. |
| Regime type | flat fraction, not tied to marriage length |
| Can it be waived | per search aggregation: waivable wholly or partially, before or after marriage, by written contract after fair disclosure |
| Time limit to file | per search aggregation: within 3 months after admission of the will to probate, or 30 days after being advised of the right of election, whichever is later |
How it works in practice
- The share is measured against property subject to disposition under the will, reduced by funeral and administration expenses, homestead allowance, family allowances and exemption, and enforceable claims; the net probate estate, no augmented-estate pull-in.
- 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: Per search aggregation: waivable wholly or partially, before or after marriage, by written contract after fair disclosure.
- The election has to be affirmatively filed on a deadline: per search aggregation: within 3 months after admission of the will to probate, or 30 days after being advised of the right of election, 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 Wyoming specifically, and its own numbers above should be used instead of the calculator’s national default for a Wyoming 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: Waiver and time-limit sections sourced via search aggregation, not a direct fetch.
- 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 Wyoming 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.