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In the law of inheritance, a laughing heir is an heir who is legally entitled to inherit the property of a person who has died, even though that heir is only distantly related to the deceased, and therefore has no personal connection or reason to feel bereaved over the death.
The laughing heir is an example of argumentative jargon, defined by Professor Leach as items of jargon designed “to point out the absurdity of the designated doctrines.”
A laughing heir is a distant relative of an intestate decedent who takes under the applicable intestacy statutes but who did not expect to inherit. This heir is said to "laugh all the way to the bank" because the heir often does not even know the decedent.
better under the statute of distribution than that of descent is that the surviving spouse is entitled to dower or curtesy and had been so entitled even under the common law.
- Nancy Coleman Messick
- 1955
- Laughing Heirs
- Inheritance After Divorce
- What The Ruling Means in West Virginia
You have probably heard people joke about wishing they had a long, lost great uncle who would leave a huge inheritance upon his passing. Basically, they were wishing to become a laughing heir, and it happens more often than you might think. But, the heir may not be an uncle at all. The legal definition is: a distant relative of an intestate deceden...
However, in the event of divorce, an ex-spouse might find him or herself in the position to receive benefit when that would not have been the wish of the decedent. Similarly to the state-established statutes limiting the extension of blood relation inheritance, some states also have statutes revoking beneficiary designation upon divorce. If, for ex...
West Virginia does not have a statute revoking designations. That means, at present, an ex-spouse could become a laughing heir if beneficiary designations have not been changed. The key takeaway for WV residents is to make sure beneficiary designations are up to date. Considering the Supreme Court ruling, the WV legislature may establish a similar ...
Feb 21, 2022 · A laughing heir is a default heir-at-law who has little or nothing to do with you. Usually it is a distant cousin, niece or nephew you’ve never met (or that you don’t like) who gets your stuff because you failed to plan your estate appropriately.
Sep 8, 2023 · A laughing heir is a beneficiary who was distantly related to the decedent and likely has very little reason to be saddened by that person’s death. If a decedent leaves behind no spouse, children, siblings, or parents, for example, he or she might have chosen to give their assets to a relative that he or she did not know very well.
