Estate Planning Newsletter

• The 'Good Faith' Implied Trust
  There may be instances where property under a trust is transferred to the wrong beneficiary. This transfer can be corrected through a remedy called a resulting trust or an implied trust. Do not confuse a resulting trust, which is... Read more.
• Non-Citizen Spouses and the Qualified Domestic Trust (QDOT)
  A QDOT is a specific type of marital deduction trust that is designed to ensure that non-citizen spouses will eventually pay any taxes that may be due upon distribution of the principal from the trust, even if the surviving spouse... Read more.
• Conservatorships to Manage the Affairs of the Incapacitated
  A “conservator” is a court-appointed individual assigned to handle the daily affairs of those who cannot care for themselves due to physical or mental limitations (the “conservatee”). Conservatorships are... Read more.
• Durable Powers of Attorney for Health Care or Health Care Directives
  A power of attorney is a document that authorizes one or more individuals (collectively referred to as the “agent” or “attorney-in-fact”) to act on behalf of the person executing the document (the... Read more.

• Eight Estate Planning Strategies In A COVID-19 World
• Coronavirus Legal Advice: Get Your Business and Estate in Order Now
• Rapid Rise In Stock Market Raises Estate Planning Concerns
• 5 Ways to Incorporate Charitable Giving into Your Estate Plan
• It’s time to create an estate plan to take advantage of the big tax exemption

Does a Killer have Rights to a Victim's Property?

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.

© 2020 NextClient.com, Inc. All rights reserved.