— Also termed forced share; statutory share; statutory forced share. See RIGHT OF ELECTION. [Cases: Wills 778–803. C.J.S. Wills §§ 1841–1879.]
“In many states today, common-law dower and curtesy have been wholly replaced by statutes that make the surviving spouse an ‘heir’ of the deceased spouse and fix a minimum percentage of the decedent’s estate (real and personal) to which the survivor will be entitled regardless of efforts of the deceased spouse to prevent it by will. This statutory minimum — called the statutory forced share — is typically an estate in fee simple, not merely a life estate. A serious disadvantage to the surviving spouse under many of these statutes, however, is that the minimum percentage applies only to property owned by the decedent at death. Both husbands and wives can, under such statutes, defeat their spouses’ forced shares by inter vivos transfer.” Thomas F. Bergin & Paul G. Haskell, Preface to Estates in Land and Future Interests 37–38 (2d ed. 1984).
