Increase of States with Laws Challenging Deathbed Marriages

Recently,several states have enacted statutes to allow heirs the ability to challenge adeathbed marriage. Despite some states developing a process to contest adeathbed marriage, many of the new laws still have some serious problems.

In2008, Florida published a study on Florida law on the laws regarding challengeswithin probate proceeding to the validity of marriages after a spouse’s death.The surviving spouse will receive many benefits including rights to thehomestead, family allowance and others.Therewas no law available to challenge the validity of deathbed marriages and caselaw claiming that they could not be challenged.

Because of the report, in 2010Florida passed legislation granting people the right to challenge rightsgranted to the surviving spouse. The statute of limitations is four years afterthe decedent’s death. However, there are still loopholes in the statute. Thestatute allows a surviving spouse who fraudulently entered into the marriage isnot entitled to, among other things, “any rights or benefits under a will,trust, or power of appointment, unless the surviving spouse is provided for byname, whether or not designated as the spouse, in the will, trust, or power ofappointment.”

See John T. Brooks and Jena L. Levin, “I Do – And Yes, He Does, Too”, Wealth Management, Aug. 27, 2013.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.)) for bringing this article to my attention.