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2024 Florida Statutes

Title XLII ESTATES AND TRUSTS
Chapter 736 FLORIDA TRUST CODE Entire Chapter
SECTION 1104
Person not entitled to receive property or other benefits by reason of victim’s death.
F.S. 736.1104
736.1104 Person not entitled to receive property or other benefits by reason of victim’s death.—
(1) A beneficiary of a trust who unlawfully and intentionally kills or unlawfully and intentionally participates in procuring the death of the settlor or another person on whose death such beneficiary’s interest depends, is not entitled to any trust interest, including homestead, dependent on the victim’s death, and such interest shall devolve as though the killer had predeceased the victim.
(2) A final judgment of conviction of murder in any degree is conclusive for the purposes of this section. In the absence of a murder conviction in any degree, the court may determine by the greater weight of the evidence whether the killing was unlawful and intentional for purposes of this section.
(3) A beneficiary of a trust who was convicted in any state or foreign jurisdiction of abuse, neglect, exploitation, or aggravated manslaughter of an elderly person or a disabled adult, as those terms are defined in s. 825.101, for conduct against a settlor or another person on whose death such beneficiary’s interest depends is not entitled to any trust interest, including a homestead dependent on the victim’s death, and such interest shall devolve as though the abuser, neglector, exploiter, or killer had predeceased the victim.
(a) A final judgment of conviction for abuse, neglect, exploitation, or aggravated manslaughter of the decedent or other person creates a rebuttable presumption that this section applies.
(b) In the absence of a qualifying conviction, the court may determine by the greater weight of the evidence whether the decedent’s or other person’s death was caused by or contributed to by the abuser’s, neglector’s, exploiter’s, or killer’s conduct as defined in s. 825.102, s. 825.103, or s. 782.07(2) for purposes of this section.
(c) This subsection does not apply if it can be proven by clear and convincing evidence that, after the conviction of abuse, neglect, or exploitation, the victim of the offense, if capacitated, ratifies an intent that the person so convicted of abuse, neglect, or exploitation retain a trust interest by executing a valid written instrument, sworn to and witnessed by two persons who would be competent as witnesses to a will, which expresses a specific intent to allow the convicted person to retain a trust interest.
History.—s. 11, ch. 2006-217; s. 4, ch. 2021-221.