Taxation & Estate Planning

Ohio man who tried to kill parents may get their $500,000 estate

By Michael D. Bonasera, Esq.

Is it odd that I live in Ohio and I heard about this story from a guy who lives (and blogs) in Illinois?  Anyways…

This very friendly looking guy

apparently tried to murder his adoptive parents when he was 17.  First, he laced their tea with cyanide and Second (as if you needed a second), he shot at them with his .38 hitting mom three times and missing dad.  Mom and dad both survive, he goes to juvenile jail for for 1 year, then he gets out and joins the Navy.  He then “settles down” (a humerous but ill-advised pun that the author obviously didn’t catch) and his step-parents both die with recipricol “I love you wills” leaving everything to each other with no contingent benficiaries.  Oops.  In an article full of unique quotes, this one caught my eye:

“It’s a mess, a classic example of what happens when you don’t update your will,” said John Polito, chief magistrate and administrator in Probate Court. “The way it was written, it was as if they had no wills.”

There is no mention in the article of Ohio’s Slayer statute (R.C. 2105.19), which is odd, but I think the issue is not so much that you should have your wills regularly updated but that you should have your wills drafted by someone who knows what they’re doing.  To have simple, mirror-image wills that do not contemplate a simultaneous death by listing any contingent beneficiaries is inexcusable malpractice.

Thats all I have to say about that.

Full post as published by The Ohio Trust & Estate Blog on December 22, 2008 (boomark / email).