Slayer rule
A person who unlawfully kills somebody cannot inherit from them.
What it means
Nearly every state has a statute providing that a person who feloniously and intentionally kills another may not take anything from their estate — not under the will, not by intestacy, not as a joint owner, and not as the named beneficiary of a policy or a retirement account.
The mechanism is usually a fiction: the killer is treated as having died first. That matters, because it means the property does not simply vanish — it passes to whoever would have taken had the killer predeceased, which is often the killer's own children.
A criminal conviction settles the question, but the statutes generally do not require one. A probate court can decide the point itself on the civil standard of proof, which is why the rule can apply where a prosecution failed, was never brought, or ended because the killer also died.
Why it matters
It reaches beneficiary designations and joint accounts, which most people assume are untouchable by anything in probate.
It is also the rule that most often decides where property goes in a murder-suicide, and it is the reason the answer is rarely the one a family expects.
When you are likely to meet it
- When an insurer holds a policy and will not pay the named beneficiary.
- When a joint account does not pass to the surviving owner.
- When a probate court is asked to decide something a criminal court did not.
How this varies by state
The exact wording, whether a conviction is required, and how far the rule reaches into non-probate property are all set by state law.