A check issued to the decedent prior to death and cashed afterwards is cash owned at death

The decedent’s will gave his surviving spouse one-half of cash owned at death including bank accounts, certificates of indebtedness, and “in any other form.”  Under authority granted by a general power of attorney, the decedent’s wife picked up a dividend check issued to the decedent by an LLC in which he owned an interest.

The check was dated the next day but the LLC routinely allowed shareholders to collect their dividend checks after 2 p.m. on the day before the payable date.

The decedent’s wife endorsed the check for deposit and it was deposited the next day two hours after the decedent’s death.

The court in In re Succession of Templet, 977 So. 2d 983 (La. Ct. App. 2007), held that the expansive definition of cash in the will clearly showed that the decedent intended the check to be classified as cash owned at death.