If A Greedy Family Member’s Actions Were Worse Than Mere Undue Influence, Summon The Slayer Statute

Undue influence is one of the most commonly cited reasons for challenging a deceased testator’s will in probate court.  In other words, you can persuade the probate court to consider a will invalid if the decedent wrote it near the end of his or her life to replace an earlier will and if a main beneficiary of the new will pressured or manipulated the testator into giving him or her a greater share of inheritance.  Undue influence and elder abuse do not always occur together, but they sometimes do.  For example, it only makes sense if the decedent left a somewhat bigger inheritance to the daughter who lived with him and took care of him during his final illness than he did to her siblings, but it is undue influence if this daughter prevented her father from speaking to the other siblings and persuaded him to disinherit them when he was too ill to understand the consequences of his choice.  It is also undue influence when a woman your widowed father met on a dating site engages him in a whirlwind courtship and is so jealous of his relationship with his children that he reduces his contact with them and then leaves the majority of his estate to his new wife.  In these cases, the disinherited relatives may be angry, and they may blame the interloper for ruining their relationship with the decedent, but they do not claim, nor do they believe, that the interloper killed the decedent.  An Orlando probate lawyer can help you deal with probate disputes that are even uglier than undue influence.

The Probate Court Has a Zero Tolerance Policy for Supervillain Behavior

Florida’s Slayer Statute states that a person who intentionally causes the death of another person loses the right to inherit from the victim’s estate if he or she is a beneficiary of the decedent’s will or, if the decedent did not have a will, if he or she is a close relative of the decedent who would ordinarily inherit through the laws of intestate succession.  In the law’s earliest form, it only applied to people convicted of murdering their relatives or friends who had listed them as beneficiaries of the will; therefore, the probate courts rarely applied this law.

Today, the Slayer Statute has expanded its provisions.  It now includes family members charged with causing fatal accidents and those who willfully neglect their elderly relatives, resulting in the elderly relative’s death.  The personal representative may invoke the Slayer Statute if a beneficiary of the will has been charged with any of a list of crimes, including vehicular homicide, drug delivery resulting in death, or elder abuse.  It can also apply if the relative was not convicted in criminal court, but the evidence is sufficient to persuade the probate court.

Contact Gierach and Gierach About Complex Probate Cases

A probate lawyer can help you in your task as personal representative of an estate plagued by disputes.  Contact Gierach and Gierach, P.A. in Orlando, Florida to discuss your case.

Source:

flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2015/732.802#:~:text=(1)%20A%20surviving%20person%20who,killer%20had%20predeceased%20the%20decedent.