Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Hedge fund manager, cocaine, unstable marriage, death at age 44

Here is the estate planning connection, via Professor Beyer's blog.

1 comment:

JLM said...

Even the staid American Banker opined that "there is nothing edifying or educational" in the Seth Tobias story. Nevertheless, it does give us a reason to get acquainted with Florida's pretermitted spouse statute. Assuming Seth left no lineal descendants, his widow is entitled to his entire estate.

Her former brothers-in-law base their claim on Florida's slayer statute. According to this post on Florida Probate and Trust Litigation Blog, they might get Seth's millions even if his widow is not convicted of murder: "In the absence of a conviction of murder in any degree, the court may determine by the greater weight of the evidence whether the killing was unlawful and intentional . . . ."