Reply #5: Makes no difference how long at all.

[FlaGranny]

As far as survivor rights, unless there is a will stating otherwise, everything always goes to the wife, and nothing to adult children. Tell me about it - my husband's father died. Everything went to his wife (my husband's stepmother). Then she died and everything my father-in-law worked for his entire life went to - his wife's sister (her next of kin)!!!! The natural children of my husband's father got ZERO. The estate wasn't huge, of course, like Brown's, but it was a "nifty" amount. It has always pissed me off.