Uncooperative Heirs and Ignored Inheritances

<p><span>Heirs can be categorized by how they respond to their inheritances. Most heirs gladly accept their inheritances. Others, for various reasons, disclaim their inheritances by formally rejecting them, and their inheritances are distributed to alternate heirs. Still others fail to claim their inheritances because they cannot be located at the time of estate administration, and the state maintains custody of their inheritances within its unclaimed property system. A fourth category of heirs possess characteristics of the previous three but are strikingly different.</span></p> <p><span>Like those who either accept or disclaim their inheritances, these heirs are aware that they are entitled to a portion of a decedent’s estate. However, rather than affirmatively acknowledging their inheritances, these heirs respond to their inheritances like those who are unaware that they are heirs—by doing nothing. These heirs refuse to take possession of their gifts; they do not deposit checks sent to them by the estate’s personal representative; and they do not acknowledge receipt of their inheritances. The law, of course, does not force heirs to accept their inheritances, yet heirs within this forth category also refuse to formally disclaim their inheritance by providing written notice of their intent to do so to the personal representative. In short, these uncooperative heirs ignore their inheritances.</span></p> <p><span>Uncooperative heirs who knowingly ignore their inheritances are fundamentally different than both heirs who affirmatively disclaim their inheritances and those who unknowingly fail to claim theirs. Nonetheless, the law typically regulates uncooperative heirs and their ignored inheritances as if they were one or the other. Because these approaches fail to account for the unique characteristics of uncooperative heirs, policymakers should fundamentally reconsider how the law regulates ignored inheritances. This Article develops the analytical framework to do so.<i></i></span></p>