Who May Benefit From A Will? – Criminals
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Want to make a start on your will?
Making a Will is not about wealth it is about making sure that what you want to happen to your estate does happen. It gives you the opportunity to specify such things as who will administer your estate, who will care for your children and who will receive specific items of your property.
Following changes to the previous law a criminal may now be a beneficiary under a will and is entitled to his or her legacy in full.However, this does not apply where the criminal concerned is the killer of the deceased. The general rule is that a person found guilty of the murder or manslaughter of another who is not found to have been insane at the time of the killing cannot take any benefit under his will.
The reasons for this are obvious. Public policy dictates that a murderer cannot benefit from his crime. With manslaughter, the rule applies regardless of whether any moral blame can be attributed to the killer.
(see https://www.rlrouse.com/will-tips)
What if the killer is found to be mentally disturbed? Where the killer has been declared insane the rule does not apply because a verdict of ‘not guilty by reason of insanity’ amounts to an acquittal of the accused.
If the killer forfeits his inheritance it passes according to the terms of the will or, failing that, under the intestacy rules.
Other webpages of interest – Who May Benefit From A Will? – Example3 or Wills Including Animals
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