853.12 Premarital will or predomestic partnership will.
(1) Entitlement of surviving spouse or surviving domestic partner. Subject to sub. (3), if the testator married the surviving spouse or recorded a domestic partnership under ch. 770 with the surviving domestic partner after the testator executed his or her will, the surviving spouse or surviving domestic partner is entitled to a share of the probate estate.
(2) Value of share. The value of the share under sub. (1) is the value of the share that the surviving spouse or surviving domestic partner would have received had the testator died with an intestate estate equal to the value of the testator's net estate, but the value of the net estate shall first be reduced by the value of all of the following:
(a) All devises to or for the benefit of the testator's children who were born before the marriage to the surviving spouse or the domestic partnership with the surviving domestic partner and who are not also the children of the surviving spouse or surviving domestic partner.
(b) All devises to or for the benefit of the issue of a child described in par. (a).
(c) All devises that pass under s. 854.06, 854.07, 854.21, or 854.22 to or for the benefit of children described in par. (a) or issue of those children.
(3) Exceptions. Subsection (1) does not apply if any of the following applies:
(a) It appears from the will or other evidence that the will was made in contemplation of the testator's marriage to the surviving spouse or domestic partnership with the surviving domestic partner.
(b) It appears from the will or other evidence that the will is intended to be effective notwithstanding any subsequent marriage or domestic partnership, or there is sufficient evidence that the testator considered revising the will after marriage or domestic partnership but decided not to.
(d) The testator and the spouse have entered into an agreement that complies with ch. 766 and that provides for the spouse or specifies that the spouse is to have no rights in the testator's estate.
(4) Priority and abatement. In satisfying the share provided by this section:
(a) Amounts received by the surviving spouse under s. 861.02 and devises made by will to the surviving spouse or surviving domestic partner are applied first.
(b) Devises other than those described in sub. (2) (a) to (c) abate as provided under s. 854.18.
History: 2005 a. 216 s. 75; 2009 a. 28.
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