Estate Planning Newsletter

• Probate
  Probate, a Latin term meaning “to prove the will,” is a court-supervised process that settles a person’s affairs after death. To ensure that the decedent’s final matters and wishes are handled correctly... Read more.
• Effect of Separation and Divorce on Estates and Trusts
  Most people are aware that a surviving spouse is usually entitled to inherit all or a large portion of the estate of a deceased spouse. Fewer understand the effect on estates if one spouse dies during a legal separation or after a... Read more.
• Gift Tax and the Annual Exclusion
  A gift tax is a tax on the privilege of making gifts to others while the taxpayer is still living. The gift tax supplements the estate tax, which taxes gifts made upon death. The gift tax was created to frustrate the attempts of those... Read more.
• Filing a Death Claim When an Insured Person Dies
  The beneficiary of a life insurance policy is the person entitled to receive the death benefit of the policy when the insured person dies. In order to collect on a death benefit claim, the beneficiary must usually comply with specific... Read more.

• Estate Planning and Business Transition Considerations for Year-End Preparations
• Estate Planning Benefits Gain Momentum
• Enjoying the Ride: Estate Planning
• Three Overlooked Benefits of Estate Planning
• Expert advice on digital estate planning

Homicide & Estate Planning

If a person murders a relative, is he/she entitled to receive any of the victim’s property? In most cases, the answer would be “no.” Usually, a convicted killer cannot inherit a victim’s property, even if he/she is a rightful heir or a named beneficiary.

Required Characteristics

To lose all rights to the dead relative’s property, the criminal court will need to find that a killer:

• Intentionally and feloniously killed the person
• Was legally sane at the time of the murder

Even if a person is not convicted of murder in criminal court, he/she may still lose rights to the dead person’s property if the probate court finds that he/she is responsible for the person’s death.

Forfeited Rights

Once the above are established, then the killer is treated as having “predeceased” the murdered person. This means that any rights the killer once had to the decedent’s estate are passed to whomever is next in line to inherit or manage the estate (as if the killer never existed as an heir).

The killer will therefore lose all rights to his/her share of the following:

• Separate, joint, or quasi-community property
• Bond or life insurance benefits
• Any nomination as executor, trustee, guardian, or conservator in the decedent’s will or trust

Other Forfeiture

If the killer pleads guilty to involuntary manslaughter (instead of being found guilty of murder), he/she may not be viewed as being innocent and may still lose all rights to the decedent’s property.