Uniform Simultaneous Death Act

Key Takeaways
* The Uniform Simultaneous Death Act (USDA) is a statute used to determine inheritance when two or more people die at about the same time.
* Under the Act, if people die within 120 hours of each other and there is no contrary governing document, each person’s assets are treated as passing directly to their heirs rather than through the other decedent’s estate.
* This avoids multiple probates and reduces administrative costs. The 120-hour rule can be modified or displaced by wills, trusts, insurance policies, or other instruments that address simultaneous deaths.

What the Uniform Simultaneous Death Act Is
The Uniform Simultaneous Death Act is a model law adopted by many U.S. jurisdictions to resolve how property is distributed when two or more people die in a common incident or within a short time of one another. Its main purpose is to prevent the estate of one decedent from passing through the estate of another, which would otherwise require separate probates and increase administrative expense.

How the Act Works
* 120-hour rule: If two or more people die within 120 hours (five days) of each other and there is no controlling will, trust, or other governing instrument, each person is treated as having predeceased the other for purposes of distribution. In practice, assets go to each decedent’s heirs or beneficiaries rather than flowing from one estate to another.
* Missing persons: A 1993 revision extended application to certain missing-person situations. For example, an individual missing for at least five years and legally presumed dead may be treated under the Act’s provisions.
* Probate avoidance: By treating assets as passing directly to heirs, the Act can eliminate the need for two successive probates and the associated duplication of costs.

Example
If spouses die in a common accident and one is pronounced deceased at the scene while the other dies shortly afterward, the 120-hour rule can prevent all assets from first vesting in the estate of the spouse who survived by hours. Instead, each spouse’s property is distributed to their respective heirs as if they had predeceased the other.

Special Considerations
* Governing instruments control: Wills, trusts, deeds, insurance policies, and beneficiary designations that expressly address simultaneous deaths or include a different survival period override the Act.
* Waiver and adverse effects: The 120-hour survival requirement may be waived if applying it would cause an unintended failure or duplication of distributions. Even when waived, survival typically must be established by clear and convincing evidence.

Uniform Simultaneous Death Act vs. Uniform Probate Code
Some states adopt the USDA (or its 1993 revision); others rely on the Uniform Probate Code (UPC), a comprehensive statutory framework for probate and nonprobate transfers promulgated in 1969. The UPC and USDA both aim to bring uniformity to death-related property rules, but the UPC covers a broader array of probate and estate-administration topics.

Practical Implications
* Estate planning tip: To ensure assets pass as intended after simultaneous or nearly simultaneous deaths, include explicit provisions in wills, trusts, and beneficiary designations that address survival periods and common-incident scenarios.
* When a dispute arises, courts will look first to controlling documents. If none exist, the applicable state statute—whether the USDA, its revisions, or the UPC—will govern distribution.

Further information can be found in the Uniform Law Commission’s texts for the Simultaneous Death Act and the Uniform Probate Code.