By Sea Sitka is a year-round port of call for the Alaska Marine Highway System (1-800-642-0066, www.dot.state.ak.us/amhs/). These state-operated ferries provide an extraordinary opportunity to navigate the Inside Passage at a leisurely pace.
Spouses in community property states are generally entitled to take all community property at death, and half in the case of divorce. If the husband inherited the property, or took title to it before the marriage, for example, the wife would not automatically be entitled to a share of it.
The life insurance proceeds will pass directly to the decedent's living heirs-at-law, individuals so closely related to him that they would be legally entitled to inherit from him if he had not left a will. This can depend on state law and the insurance company's payment policies, but the bottom line is the same. The life insurance proceeds don't have to be used to pay the decedent's final bills unless they're payable to his estate rather than his heirs-at-law.