Simultaneous Deaths & Estate Planning

Simultaneous deaths, the rare occurrence whereby two people who are beneficiaries of each others’ estates die within short succession of each other, can pose a huge wrinkle to even careful estate planning. With the recent notoriety around this possibility due to the deaths of actor Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa, who died within days of each other in February 2025, it’s important to understand how simultaneous deaths operate and affect your estate planning.

Uniform Simultaneous Death Act

Most states, including California, have adopted the Uniform Simultaneous Death Act (USDA), which provides that if two people die within 120 hours (5 days) of each other, they are treated as both dying before each other. This “120 hours rule” allows the assets of both deceased to pass to the next-in-line beneficiaries—not to each other. This is important because without the 120 hours rule, there is the possibility that estates can end up in double probate, which can complicate the proceedings and lengthens the probate process. Not all states have adopted the USDA, and some have provisions that allow beneficiaries to present evidence to overrule the presumption of simultaneous death. There are also tools that you can use in estate planning to override that 120-hour rule.

How Survivorship Provisions Can Impact Simultaneous Deaths

One way to ensure that there is no confusion in the event of a simultaneous death is to use a survivorship provision. This is a clause that dictates how long a beneficiary must outlive you before their interest in your estate is passed on to the next beneficiary. This, effectively, overrides the 120-hour rule from the USDA. 

Usually, a survivorship clause is for 30-90 days and if the beneficiary does not outlive you for the set amount of time, their interest will pass on as if they had predeceased you. For instance, reports suggest that Betsy Arakawa had a provision in her will that required Gene Hackman to outlive her by 90 days to inherit her estate. Since he did not, the law treats him as having predeceased her. Had this clause not existed, whether her interest passes to Hackman’s estate (even though he was also deceased) would have been determined by that 120-hour rule. If he had survived past that 120 hours, all of Arakawa’s assets would go to Hackman’s estate, to be disbursed to his beneficiaries. Of course, if he had left all or a part of his estate to Arakawa, or if there was some question about whether the 120-hour rule was satisfied, this could have led to a double probate situation.