A Kansas City woman is in court seeking to be the beneficiary of her father’s estate at the same time she of trial for his murder. Susan Van Note is accused of killing her father after being excluded from his will in favor of a girlfriend. She has argued that her father’s girlfriend died first and, as a result of being the sole beneficiary of his will, caused her father to die intestate leaving the estate to his children. However, the girlfriend’s adult son is challenging the assertion by calling for the application of a slayer statute to prevent a murderer from benefiting from the crime. Just goes to show the importance of making sure an estate plan does not leave someone out in the cold enough that the excluded party will take drastic, over the top action.
See Will accused killer inherit victim’s fortune?, Kansas City Business Journal, June 22, 2015.
Special thanks to Brian Cohan (Attorney at Law, Law Offices of Brian J. Cohan, P.C.) for bringing this article to my attention.
