Estates, Inheritances and Murder? hedge fund inheritance killing & accused’s use of estate funds to pay legal defense

What is going on in the world right now regarding estates and inheritances? Two major estate and inheritance casesare making the headlines and are the subject of talk radio. 

Should a killer inherit from an estate?

• Everyone is discussing the New York case of a son of a wealthy hedge fund manager accused of killing his father over money: perhaps an allowance or maybe an inheritance. 
• Here is the link to this inheritance story: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/18/style/thomas-s-gilbert-jr-the-price-of-privilege.html?hpw&rref=fashion&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0
• Also, halfway around the globe in Bali, radio talk show hosts and other media outlets are talking about an estate and whether estate money can be used to pay legal fees of the person accused of killing someone.
• Should a daughter who is accused of killing a mother be able to inherit?
• In Florida, killers, or those who lead to the death of someone, cannot inherit from the vicitm’s estate.  
• That is the so called “slayer statute” in Florida.
• Florida’s slayer statute will not permit you to inherit from the estate if you caused someone’s death.  Note:  this does not necessarily mean that you have to be convicted of this in a criminal court.
• Is this an area where criminal law and probate law overlap? Indeed.

Understanding Family Money Disputes:  probate litigation and then some

• I’ve always said that blood and money don’t mix, but what I’ve meant was that family relationships (related by blood or marriage) and money don’t mix. People fight over money, often inheritances, or a lack of an inheritance.
• The news out of Manhattan that a quarreling son gunned down his hedge fund manager dad demonstrates that money fights can get bloody, and sadly, all to tragic.
• Fighting over money is nothing new. We see it all the time with younger children (minors) and adult parents, but we chalk that up to innocence and immaturity.
•  But this recent story throws a bloody spotlight on a growing trend of parents -and step parents — and ADULT children fighting over money.
• Witness the number of guardianship cases filed each year over mothers and fathers, and the guardianship litigation which ensues to be guardian of a “person” and their “property.”
• Probate lawyers know this all too well: It used to be that family only fought over moneywhen mom or dad died, and in that case, people were counting their money in the limo on the way to the burial, and putting a probate litigator on speed dial. That has all changed.
• Now, “contested guardianships” see mom or dad, perhaps a step parent or 2^nd or 3^rdspouse, engaged in a legal “brawl” with children and step children over who will control a parent -and their money-when one is unable to manage one’s affairs: what probate lawyers and courts refer to as becoming “incompetent” or having “diminished capacity.”
• This Manhattan hedge fund manager murder is nothing different than what Pankauski calls the “fight for your wealth“, it’s just sadly very deadly.
• Unfortunately, Pankauski is no stranger to homicides and families, having been involved in Florida estates which involved jealous lover killings and apparent parent-child homicides.
• Right now, there is $59 Trillion -trillion, with a “T”-being transferred from the WWII generation to the Baby Boomers, Gens X and Y in the greatest wealth shift in human kind, according to the Boston College Center on Wealth and Philanthropy. This homicide is an example of how extreme the fight for one’s wealth can get. It used to be that will contests and estate lawsuits were fought with trial lawyers over concepts like “undue influence.”

Family wealth and the very rich and educated are not immune from the violence which attacks so many other segments of our society.