Knives Out: What Hollywood Had Right about Wills, Estates, Families, and Law School Hypotheticals

 

This guest blog post is from Sarah Stefaniak, Regent Law 3L and current Wills, Trusts & Estates student: 

 

The 2019 Lionsgate film, Knives Out, follows the murder of a famous mystery novelist who was found dead in his mansion the morning after his 85th birthday party. The entire family had been in the house that night. A private eye hired by a mysterious actor is tasked with interviewing each family member to figure out who could have killed the patriarch. Amidst the excitement and curiosity in this classic “Who-Done-It?” we find estate planning issues. 

 

During the outdated practice of a ceremonial will reading to the family after the novelist’s funeral, we discover that he had changed the beneficiaries in his will from his entire family to instead gifting everything to his young nurse. His reasoning? Unlike his ungrateful family, she kept him company and had been a friend to him the last several years of his life. We also discover quite quickly however, that the nurse believes it was her incorrect dosage of medicine with which she injected the novelist the previous night that was the cause of his murder. It was an accident, but it was still murder. As the plot unfolds and the characters are established, many viewers have sympathy for this nurse and her mistake.  

 

On top of the exciting plot twists and general attraction of a well written film, there is a jackpot of issues for estate planning enthusiasts. For example, the film subliminally addresses the slayer statute, which prohibits a beneficiary who is convicted of murder, including involuntary manslaughter in some states, from inheriting from the estate. The film also deals with the family’s response to the new version of the will. The law allows all testators the freedom to dispose of their property as they wish. In addition, any will may be revoked by a subsequent writing, such as a newly drafted will. When the family decides to contest the will, will they succeed or is the new will valid? 

Without giving away spoilers to the film, the movie refreshingly stays true to American jurisprudence and a typical law school exam hypothetical. Those familiar with wills and estates issues may find themselves asking two questions rather than one while watching the film: who killed the mystery novelist and who inherits his fortune?

And the need for family restoration is clearly on display.