30 day survivorship clause - does time of day matter?

Denomolos

My father-in-law died 29 days ago.

There is a 30-day survivorship clause in his will.

We found out today that my mother-in-law, who has a Do Not Resuscitate in her notes, has been placed on an end-of-life pathway . She could pass today, tomorrow or could recover and go on for years.

If she passes today, then the relevance of the 30-day clause is clear.

Likewise, if she survives until the day-after-tomorrow then the relevance is also clear.

My question, though, is what if she passes tomorrow?

Does her survival until the 30th day mean that the 30-day clause is now relevant? Or does she need to survive until the start of the 31st day?

Or is it literally exactly 30 days from the time of death recorded on his death certificate? So if he was pronounced dead at 4pm then as long as she passes at 4:01pm or later the clause is not relevant?

Thank you.

Keep_pedalling

That is an interesting question to which I don’t know the answer. Would the clause have a major impact on the beneficiaries if the clause was triggered? With the transferable NRBs and spousal exemption these once common clauses can lead to unfortunate consequences regarding IHT. 

NorthYorkie

In my experience, a death certificate does not show the time of death and neither does the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death.
Also you need to consider the precise wording of the survival clause

poseidon1

Denomolos said:

My father-in-law died 29 days ago.

There is a 30-day survivorship clause in his will.

We found out today that my mother-in-law, who has a Do Not Resuscitate in her notes, has been placed on an end-of-life pathway . She could pass today, tomorrow or could recover and go on for years.

If she passes today, then the relevance of the 30-day clause is clear.

Likewise, if she survives until the day-after-tomorrow then the relevance is also clear.

My question, though, is what if she passes tomorrow?

Does her survival until the 30th day mean that the 30-day clause is now relevant? Or does she need to survive until the start of the 31st day?

Or is it literally exactly 30 days from the time of death recorded on his death certificate? So if he was pronounced dead at 4pm then as long as she passes at 4:01pm or later the clause is not relevant?

Thank you.

These survivorship clauses can have a negative effect on the availability  of the transferable nil rate band, and so should no longer have been standard practice for  most married couples. The scholarly article below from Malcolm Finney ( a leading private client tax adviser)  explains -

https://www.kessler.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/FinneySurvivorshipClauses.pdf