HRS § 560:2-803 Effect of Homicide On Intestate Succession, Wills, Trusts, Joint Assets, Life Insurance, and Beneficiary Designations

• Library: Hawaii Statutes
• Edition: 2023
• Currency: Current through 2023 Legislative Session
• Year: 2023
• Citation: HRS § 560:2-803

(a) Definitions. In this section:

"Disposition or appointment of property" includes a transfer of an item of property or any other benefit to a beneficiary designated in a governing instrument.

"Governing instrument" means a governing instrument executed by the decedent.

"Revocable", with respect to a disposition, appointment, provision, or nomination, means one under which the decedent, at the time of or immediately before death, was alone empowered, by law or under the governing instrument, to cancel the designation in favor of the killer, whether or not the decedent was then empowered to designate the decedent's self in place of the decedent's killer and whether or not the decedent then had capacity to exercise the power.

(b) Forfeiture of statutory benefits. An individual who feloniously and intentionally kills the decedent forfeits all benefits under this article with respect to the decedent's estate, including an intestate share, an elective share, an omitted spouse's, reciprocal beneficiary's, or child's share, a homestead allowance, exempt property, and a family allowance. If the decedent died intestate, the decedent's intestate estate passes as if the killer disclaimed the killer's intestate share.

(c) Revocation of benefits under governing instruments. The felonious and intentional killing of the decedent:

(1) Revokes any revocable:

(A) Disposition or appointment of property made by the decedent to the killer in a governing instrument;

(B) Provision in a governing instrument conferring a general or nongeneral power of appointment on the killer; and

(C) Nomination of the killer in a governing instrument, nominating or appointing the killer to serve in any fiduciary or representative capacity, including a personal representative, executor, trustee, or agent; and

(2) Severs the interests of the decedent and killer in property held by them at the time of the killing as joint tenants with the right of survivorship, transforming the interests of the decedent and killer into tenancies in common.

(d) Effect of severance. A severance under subsection (c)(2) does not affect any third-party interest in property acquired for value and in good faith reliance on an apparent title by survivorship in the killer unless a writing declaring the severance has been noted, registered, filed, or recorded in records appropriate to the kind and location of the property which are relied upon, in the ordinary course of transactions involving such property, as evidence of ownership.