Estate Planning Newsletter

• Remedy for Unjust Obtainment of Property
  A constructive trust is a remedy imposed by the court when a person has wrongfully attained property. The court basically takes the property away from the wrongful owner and puts it in trust for the rightful owner. In the estate... Read more.
• Irrevocable Funeral Trusts and Medicaid Eligibility for Long-Term Care
  If you are concerned that the cost of skilled nursing care or other long-term care will exhaust your savings and saddle your heirs with your funeral and burial expenses, then you may want to consider adding an Irrevocable Funeral Trust... Read more.
• Converting a Home Into a Source of Income: Reverse Mortgages
  Many are familiar with the concept of a mortgage, where an individual makes monthly payments to a lender. However, for those who qualify, there is another type of mortgage called a “reverse mortgage” (RM), where the lender... Read more.
• Claiming the Death Benefit on a Life Insurance Policy After the Insured 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.

• 2021 Retirement Drawdown Strategies For High-Net-Worth Retirees
• Succession Planning for the Family-Owned Business—Keepin’ it ‘All in the Family’
• Estate Planning Opportunities Under the New Administration
• Breakdown of Estate Planning Costs
• The 10 Most Common Estate Planning Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Wills & The Effects of Homicide

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.

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