No Inheritance or Estate Tax

As a spouse, you do not have to pay federal estate tax or state inheritance tax on money inherited from your late spouse. If his estate was large -- over $5.34 million as of 2014 -- you might contact an attorney who specializes in estate planning to reduce the tax burden on your heirs when you die. Only spouses are exempt from estate and inheritance taxes, so when you pass on your spouse's estate to other beneficiaries, they may be subject to these taxes.

Spousal Disinheritance

If your marriage wasn't the happiest or your late spouse wanted to leave his estate to other family members, disinheriting you completely isn't really an option. It can't happen in the nine community property states, where half of the property acquired during the marriage belongs to the surviving spouse and the decedent can't leave it to anyone else. Most other states have laws giving a spouse an elective share in the late spouse's estate, no matter what the will says. You can give up your rights to the elective share voluntarily, but your late spouse can't make that decision for you.

Retirement Benefits

As the surviving spouse, you are the only person allowed by the Internal Revenue Service to treat an inherited individual retirement account as your own. You can roll it over into your own IRA or another qualified employer-sponsored retirement plan, such as a 401(k). You are also the only person who can simply change the name on an inherited IRA to your own by designating yourself as the account's owner. You can continue to make contributions to that IRA. As a surviving spouse, you are also entitled to Social Security benefits based on your spouse's record. You can't take these benefits until the age of 60, but if you both received Social Security benefits and your late spouse received more than you did, you can receive an amount equal to what he received at the time of his death. For example, if your spouse received $1,200 per month and you received $800, once he dies you can receive that extra $400.

Intestacy Laws

When a spouse dies without a will, called dying intestate, his estate is subject to his state's laws of intestate succession. These statutes are based on marital and blood ties, and the surviving spouse is usually entitled to a great deal of the property titled solely in the late spouse's name. In states that use the Uniform Probate Code, the entire estate passes to the surviving spouse if the decedent has no surviving descendants or parents. If all of the decedent's descendants are also descendants of the spouse -- their children or grandchildren -- the spouse is entitled to a substantial monetary amount, as well as half of the balance of the remainder of the estate. The surviving spouse's share lessens somewhat if the decedent had other descendants not related to her.