Slayer Statutes, Trusts, And The Legal Gap That Matters

A single estate planning detail can decide whether a family tragedy becomes a legal loophole. We start with a disturbing real-world style scenario that forces an uncomfortable question: if someone intentionally causes another person’s death, can they still collect money that was meant for them, especially when those assets are held in a trust?

We break down the difference between probate and trusts in plain English. Slayer statutes are designed to stop a person from benefiting from wrongdoing, but those rules often apply most clearly to the probate estate, the assets that pass through a will or through intestate succession when there is no will. Many families use revocable living trusts specifically to avoid probate, speed up administration, and keep matters private. That probate avoidance is helpful, but it can also create uncertainty if your documents don’t address extreme “bad beneficiary” situations head-on.

Then we get practical. We explain how an estate planning or elder law attorney can draft a trust provision that blocks a beneficiary from recovery if they cause serious injury or death to the trustmaker, and how the trust can redirect those funds to other beneficiaries, the beneficiary’s children, or charity. We also talk through why trusts are so flexible, from milestone-based distributions to education-focused standards and long-term control over a legacy, along with the added benefits of smoother administration and potential creditor protection when drafted properly.

If you care about protecting your family, your assets, and your intent, listen through the end, then subscribe, share this with someone who needs it, and leave a review so more people can plan before the unexpected happens.

Transcript

A Tragic Case Raises A Question

Greg McIntyre 0:04

Hey guys. Greg McIntyre, estate planning and elder law attorney. What a tragic situation. Famed actor Rob Reiner and his wife killed by their son Nick. And now Nick is pursuing trust monies held or set aside for him and his parents' trust, I think to help fund his legal defense. However, it it raises an interesting question. Can someone who kills another recover

Slayer Statutes And Probate Limits

Greg McIntyre 0:43

from their estate? Now, most states have slayer statutes, which says if I intentionally cause your death, then I cannot recover or benefit from what I did. So I can't recover, but that's through the probate estate. Generally, slayer statutes apply to the probate estate. So in this case, so probate means the last will and testament, for example. Okay. Or if you're an heir at law and there's no will and you're, you know, under the state's laws of intestate secession, the state's will, then you're blocked for recovery if you cause the death. That's probate. However, this is from a trust, okay? It's money from a trust. So trusts are

Using Trust Language To Block Inheritance

Greg McIntyre 1:39

great legal instruments. They're really contracts that avoid probate. Trust have beneficiaries. Could this have been avoided? That's really the question it raises for me. How would you avoid this? And this is an extreme tragic circumstance. I mean, who would think that this would happen? But as estate planning and elder law attorneys, we plan for the unexpected. So to avoid this in a trust, trusts don't pass through probate again, right? They avoid probate. So the slayer statutes likely or may not apply here. So to avoid this, an estate planning or elder law attorney could draft a clause within the trust or a section that addressed the intentional killing of the trust maker by a beneficiary. So you could say something like if a beneficiary causes the serious injury andor death of the trust maker, then they are blocked from recovery as a beneficiary under the trust. Then you could direct those trust funds wherever you wanted to the other beneficiaries, to that person's children, if they had children, or to charity. You could give trust allow you to give money or property outright when the trust maker decides, when the trust maker

Trust Flexibility And Long-Term Control

Greg McIntyre 3:20

or certain trigger events, such as passing away, and or to hold that money in trust, even after the grantor, the trust makers, that's the same thing. Grantor, trustmaker, trust or are synonym are synonymous. They're synonyms of each other. And so you could distribute the money out over time for certain milestone events, such as when a person turns 18, it sets up a discretionary trust for health, education, welfare with the intent that it fund college, university, or trade school. And then when that person turns 25, for example, you start distributing 10% a year over the next 10 years of income and principal until exhausted, or you can do at a certain amount at 25, 30, 35, 40 to help a person get into life, get into a career. Really, it's thinking about how do we use our legacies, our money, preserve it for ourselves, avoid excessive taxation, long-term care claims or cost, claims of creditors, avoid probate, ease of administration, and have what a law professor of mine used to call dead hand control. They used to picture this hand sticking up from the grave with remote control. It allows you to control your money, property, your legacy well beyond the grave, well beyond your death. So you can distribute that money out over time. You could have vacation homes in trust that were used by the family, for example, even after you were gone. So trusts allow you a ton of flexibility, protection, tax avoidance, probate avoidance, and ease of administration. Usually trusts are administered along with an attorney, as opposed to having to go through the long, drawn-out court probate process, which is one of the only places that claims can attach. So it can help avoid claims of creditors as well, if drafted properly. So in this case, if there is a clause that negates his inheritance through the trust as a beneficiary, if he caused the death of his parents, then by the contract of the trust, he would have voided his right to that money. As estate planning and elder law attorneys, we are commissioned to not only just carry out straightforward things that you ask, or

Planning For The Unexpected And Next Steps

Greg McIntyre 6:06

to try to achieve your wishes, but also to plan for the unexpected, to help you think about the unexpected. And while this is an extreme circumstance, the unexpected can happen. So I would say important to engage in proper planning, thought, strategy, and drafting of your estate plan. That is one of the main things that I do and that we do at McIntyre Olderlaw. I would be glad to offer a free consultation to sit down with you or you and your family and discuss that estate plan and how to achieve your goals. You can schedule a free consult at one of our offices. We practice in North and South Carolina. You can schedule that consult by calling 1 888 999 6600 or by scheduling directly on our calendars online at mcelderlaw.comslash scheduling. Thank you.