General Assembly>Division of Legislative Services>Publications>Session Summaries>2007>Wills and Decedents' Estates


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Wills and Decedents' Estates

Passed

P HB 2833

Augmented estate; inclusion of insurance policies. Clarifies that, notwithstanding what other statutes state regarding insurance policies and other benefits, they are to be included in the augmented estate. The bill is in response to the Supreme Court's opinion in Sexton v. Cornett.
Patron - Waddell

P HB 3083

Nonexoneration of liens against property bequeathed. States that any mortgage, pledge, security interest or other lien on a specific item of property shall pass encumbered by said lien unless a contrary intent is clearly set out in the will. A general directive in the will to pay debts shall not be evidence of a contrary intent. Excepts out circumstances where an agent holding a durable power of attorney or a conservator, guardian or committee grants the lien in question.
Patron - Toscano

P HB 3205

Wills; writings intended as wills. States that if a document is not in compliance with the requirements of executing a will, the document can still be valid as a will if the proponent proves by clear and convincing evidence that the decedent intended the document to be (i) the decedent's will, (ii) a partial or complete revocation of the will, (iii) an addition to or alteration of the will, or (iv) a partial or complete revival of a formerly revoked will or portion thereof. The remedy provided for in this bill may not be used to excuse any failure to comply with the requirement for a testator's signature, except where two persons mistakenly sign each other's will, or signs the self-proving certificate to a will instead of the will itself. The remedy is also only available in proceedings filed in the appropriate circuit court within one year after the decedent's death, and where all interested persons are made parties to the proceedings.
Patron - Armstrong

P SB 1263

Creditors of decedent's estate. Provides that debts and taxes owed to political subdivisions of the Commonwealth are to be considered claims that are seventh in line to be paid from a decedent's estate. Currently, such debts and taxes are not treated as a separate class of claims.
Patron - Herring

Failed

F SB 1257

Written notice of probate; exceptions. Provides that personal representatives of a decedent's estate or proponents of a decedent's will need not provide written notice of probate or qualification and notice of entitlement to copies of wills, inventories, accounts, and reports if the value of assets passing under a will or by intestacy does not exceed $15,000. Currently, this exception applies when the value of the assets does not exceed $5,000.
Patron - Herring

F SB 1264

Course of descents; clarify. Clarifies the statute concerning the course of descents when a party dies intestate by adding subdivisions within the statute.
Patron - Herring

F SB 1381

Intestate succession; desertion by parents. Clarifies that if a parent is barred from inheriting from his child through intestate succession because he had willfully deserted or abandoned the child, no person may inherit from the child's estate through intestate succession where the person's only claim on the estate is through the parent who deserted or abandoned the child, unless the person has established a personal relationship with the child and maintained such relationship until the child's death. The bill also clarifies that the prohibition against a parent inheriting from a child applies regardless of whether the child was still a minor at the time of death.
Patron - Locke

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General Assembly>Division of Legislative Services>Publications>Session Summaries>2007>Wills and Decedents' Estates

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