[patljacobson12]

My aunt passed with no will. She had no kids and husband is decede. Her brother (my dad) is the only sibling alive. He has 4 kids. My Aunt & Dad's half sister (who is deceded) has 3 kids. How will her assets be divided? She has about $100,000 in cash, should he go through the courts to be appointed administrator of her estate?

[ebaines]

First, your Dad should indeed be appointed administrator by the probate court. As her only remaining sibling, he is her closest living relative and so this should be straight-forward.

As for who gets what - there is one living sibling (your dad) and one deceased (the half-sister). I believe her estate will be divided in half - one half to your dad and one half to the half-sister's children per stirpes (i.e. each of her three children get 1/6). Here's is a chart that explains it: Intestacy Chart Note that the since your aunt had no spouse nor children, the order or precedence is:

1. To decedent's parents equally; - since they are not surviving, we skip this.
2. To the issue of parents or either of them, equally if all of the same degree of kinship; I highlighted the part that makes the half-sister an equal inheritor to your father. Since she is dead, her share is split among her three children.