Articles related to spousal years allowance

*Update, March 1, 2024: The N.C. Administrative Office of the Courts published revised year’s allowance forms in connection with the changes enacted by Session Law 2023-120.  They are AOC-E-100, Petition and Assignment Year’s Allowance and AOC-E-101, Deficiency Judgment.  Both the revised and previous version of the forms are available on the AOC’s website. The revised forms should be used for the estates of decedents dying on or after March 1, 2024.  The previous version of the forms should be used for the estates of decedents dying on or before February 29, 2024.

This is the third and final post in a series that focuses on changes to the year’s allowance in decedents’ estates resulting from Session Law 2023-120. This post discusses the process to apply for the spousal and child’s allowance. The statutory changes are effective for decedents dying on or after March 1, 2024. You can access my two previous posts in this series here and here.

If I had to guess, I would say the most common filing in a decedent’s estate is the year’s allowance.  Last year in NC, there were 18,000 filings for a year’s allowance.   There are two types of year’s allowance: one for children of the decedent and one for the spouse of the decedent.  This post focuses on some basics of the spousal year’s allowance.