If an applicable statute or a governing instrument calls for a present or future distribution to or creates a present or future interest in a designated individual's "heirs", "heirs at law", "next of kin", "relatives" or "family" or language of similar import, the property passes to those persons, including the state, and in such shares as would succeed to the designated individual's intestate estate under the intestate succession law of the designated individual's domicile if the designated individual died when the disposition is to take effect in possession or enjoyment. If the designated individual's surviving spouse is living but is remarried at the time the disposition is to take effect in possession or enjoyment, the surviving spouse is not an heir of the designated individual.
History: 1978 Comp., § 45-2-711, enacted by Laws 1993, ch. 174, § 59; 1995, ch. 210, § 20.
Official comments. — See Commissioners on Uniform State Law official comment to 2-711 UPC.
The 1995 amendment, effective July 1, 1995, in the first sentence, inserted "present or" in two places near the beginning and deleted "pursuant to the provisions of Section 45-2-105 NMSA 1978" following "including the state" near the middle.
Structure New Mexico Statutes
Chapter 45 - Uniform Probate Code
Article 2 - Intestate Succession and Wills
Part 7 - RULES OF CONSTRUCTION FOR GOVERNING INSTRUMENTS
Section 45-2-702 - Requirement of survival by one hundred twenty hours.
Section 45-2-703 - Choice of law as to meaning and effect of governing instrument.
Section 45-2-704 - Power of appointment; compliance with specific reference requirement.
Section 45-2-705 - Class gifts construed to accord with intestate succession; exceptions.
Section 45-2-709 - Representation; per capita at each generation; per stirpes.