Misc Issues

Question 1

Simultaneous Death

Answer 1

A person cannot take as an heir or beneficiary unless they survive the decedent. If the death is considered simultaneous, the property is disposed of as if they had survived the other.

USDA: mere minutes is enough

UPC: must survive by 120 hours

Question 2

Disclaimers

Answer 2

An heir or beneficiary can disclaim an interest in a signed writing, filed within 9 months of the decedent’s death. Disclaimed property passes as if the disclaimant had predeceased the decedent.

Question 3

Slayer Statute

Answer 3

Under slayer statutes, if a person feloniously and intentionally brings about the death of a decedent, he forfeits any interest in that decedent’s estate. The property passes as though the killer predeceased the victim.

Question 4

Advancement

Answer 4

An advancement is a lifetime gift to an heir with the intent that the gift be applied against any share he is to inherit from the donor’s estate.
Common Law: substantial lifetime gift to a child was presumed an advancement
Modern Law: a lifetime gift is presumed not to be an advancement unless shown to be
UPC: a lifetime gift is only an advancement if it is declared as such in contemporaneous writing by the donor or acknowledged as such in writing by the heir.

Question 5

Hotchpot

Answer 5

If a gift is an advancement, the gift’s value is added back into the estate to calculate the shares and then subtracted from the recipient’s share.

Question 6

Satisfaction

Answer 6

A lifetime gift made to a beneficiary that is intended to satisfy a testamentary gift.
-Majority: writing required
-UPC: must be provided for in writing in the will or a contemporaneous writing or in a writing by the devisee acknowledging the gift was a satisfaction