Can a murderer inherit from his victim? If you like reading old crime novels or watching whodunnits on TV, you’ll have read plenty of stories where the prime suspects in the murder of a wealthy individual are the children and the motive is a large inheritance. But what would happen to an estate if this happened in real life and it was one of the children who was guilty?
In Scottish law you cannot disinherit your children in your Will. Children have ‘Legal Rights’ to at least a third of your moveable estate (excluding land and property). You could write a will that leaves your children nothing, however this legal rights claim is protected under Scottish Law and is available to children regardless of the terms of a Will.
There is a circumstance where they can in effect disinherit themselves. The Forfeiture Act (1983) ‘precludes a person who has unlawfully killed another from acquiring a benefit in consequence of the killing’. In other words, if your eldest son Professor Plum killed you in the library with a spanner, he wouldn’t be able to benefit from your Will as a result.
Which leads to the question ‘‘if the murderer isn’t allowed to inherit, who is?’
In 2016, the Succession (Scotland) Act 2016 was passed and a provision in it treats the murderer as if he/she were themselves died before the victim. This happens more than you would think with a normal Will. There are provisions under the law for what happens to the proportion of an estate you leave to any individual who has already died. For example, if you were to leave your estate to your child, but they had already died, their children (your grandchildren) would inherit instead.
There is an anomaly in the legislation in Scotland, which was highlighted in a Netflix documentary in 2023. The case involved a man in Fife who had killed his mother and was later convicted of murder. Under the Forfeiture and Succession Acts, it was clear what should happen to the estate, but in the Will the man was named the Executor of the Will. This can of course make things much more difficult and stressful for other family members and can lead to delay.
Can a murderer inherit from his victim – conclusion
The Scottish Government is currently consulting on a new piece of legislation, the ‘Trusts and Succession (Scotland) Bill’ which may address this point in the future.
For now, thankfully, such scenarios are highly unusual and most likely found in the pages of a crime thriller.