A slayer statute denies an inheritance to a beneficiary who killed the deceased individual. More specifically, is a murder conviction required to trigger the statute? In Stephenson v. Prudential Insurance Co., a deceased Mr. Rigby owned a life insurance policy that named his partner, Mr. McGriff, as the beneficiary. Rigby ended up dying after a physical altercation between the two. The insurance company in charge of the funds filed an interpleader, allowing the court to determine the outcome of the competing claims between McGriff and Rigby’s estate. At trial, McGriff argued that because he was not charged in the death of Rigby, the slayer statute did not apply to him. The court ruled that a murder conviction is not required to determine the applicability of the slayer statute, only the court’s determination that the beneficiary “more likely than not” wrongfully caused the death of the decedent.
See Jeffrey Skatoff, Florida Slayer Statute in Federal Interpleader, Florida Probate Lawyers, September 14, 2016.
