Simultaneous Death Clause in a Will (2026 Guide)

What Is a Simultaneous Death Clause?

A simultaneous death clause is a provision in a last will and testament that tells your executor how to distribute your estate when you and a beneficiary die so close together that no one can determine who died first. It prevents your estate from cascading through two probate proceedings, avoids triggering unintended beneficiaries, and ensures your own wishes — not a state default rule — control who ultimately inherits.

Key takeaways

• The Uniform Simultaneous Death Act (revised 1993) defaults to a 120-hour window in states that have adopted it, but your will clause overrides that default entirely
• Florida and California use an evidence-based standard rather than an automatic 120-hour period, making a written clause especially critical in those states
• Betsy Arakawa's 90-day survivorship clause redirected her estate away from Gene Hackman's heirs after the couple died one week apart in February 2025
• Double probate on a $500,000 combined estate can cost an extra $7,500–$17,500 in avoidable administration fees compared to a properly planned estate
• Your will clause covers probate assets only; your trust and your beneficiary designations on accounts need separate, coordinated survivorship language or the clause is only partially effective

The Double-Probate Trap: A Worked Example

Here is precisely how a missing simultaneous death clause turns a one-step inheritance into a two-step cascade of avoidable costs.

Scenario: Pat and Sam are married with a combined estate of $500,000 — $250,000 each. Each will leaves everything to the other, with their adult children listed as contingent beneficiaries. They are injured in the same accident. Sam dies first. Pat dies 130 hours — about five and a half days — later. Their state uses the Uniform Simultaneous Death Act's 120-hour rule.

Because Pat survived Sam by more than 120 hours, Sam's $250,000 legally passes to Pat in Probate #1. Pat then dies, and Pat's now-$500,000 estate runs through Probate #2 before the children receive anything.

Scenario	Probate proceedings	Estimated total cost (3–7% of estate value per proceeding)
No simultaneous death clause	Sam's $250K + Pat's combined $500K — two full probates	$7,500–$17,500 (Sam) + $15,000–$35,000 (Pat) = $22,500–$52,500
30-day survivorship clause	Pat did not survive 30 days; each estate handled separately	$7,500–$17,500 (Sam) + $7,500–$17,500 (Pat) = $15,000–$35,000
Savings from including the clause		$7,500–$17,500 recovered for beneficiaries

The 3–7% estimate reflects attorney fees, executor compensation, court filing fees, and ancillary costs — a range documented across all 50 states. In California, where Cal. Prob. Code § 10810 sets statutory fees as a percentage of gross estate value paid separately to both the attorney and the executor, the cost gap between one and two probate proceedings is even wider.

Beyond cost, consider the blended-family scenario. If Sam had children from a prior marriage and Sam's $250,000 first passes through Pat's estate, that money ultimately flows under Pat's will — which may leave Sam's children with nothing. A simultaneous death clause prevents this by directing Sam's estate straight to Sam's own contingent beneficiaries the moment the survivorship window is not met.

This is why attorneys also call the simultaneous death clause a common disaster clause — and why some wills in the United Kingdom, following the sinking of the RMS Titanic, began including explicit language now known as "Titanic clauses" to address exactly this scenario.

The Three-Layer Problem: Why Your Will Clause Is Not Enough

Almost every article about simultaneous death clauses focuses exclusively on the will. What they miss is the structural problem at the heart of most estate plans: your will, your trust, and your beneficiary designations are three independent governing instruments. Each one answers to its own survivorship rules. Unless all three layers use the same survivorship window, even a flawless will clause can be bypassed.

Layer 1 — Your will governs probate assets: real estate titled in your name alone, bank accounts without a beneficiary designation, personal property, and anything else that passes through your estate. A simultaneous death clause here controls all of these.

Layer 2 — Your revocable trust operates under its own terms. If your trust is silent on simultaneous death, state default law fills the gap — but that default may not match your will's clause. A will with a 30-day survivorship window and a trust with no window at all will distribute different assets under different rules. The Uniform Simultaneous Death Act (and its state equivalents) makes clear that language in a governing instrument — any governing instrument — overrides the statutory default, so a trust without the language simply gets the statute.

Layer 3 — Beneficiary designations on life insurance policies, IRAs, 401(k)s, and payable-on-death (POD) accounts are entirely separate. Your will clause has zero legal effect on these assets. An insurer paying out a policy answers only to the policy contract and the designation form on file.

Asset type	Governed by	How to add survivorship protection
Probate assets (individually titled property, sole-owner accounts)	Your will	Simultaneous death / survivorship clause in the will
Trust assets	Trust document	Parallel survivorship language added to the trust
Life insurance	Policy contract + beneficiary form	Name a contingent (secondary) beneficiary on the policy
IRA and 401(k)	Plan documents + beneficiary form	Name a contingent beneficiary; verify plan-specific rules
Joint tenancy real estate	State property law + deed	Review right-of-survivorship implications with an attorney
Payable-on-death / TOD accounts	Account agreement	Name a contingent beneficiary on each account

The Gene Hackman and Betsy Arakawa case is the clearest recent proof of this three-layer complexity. Investigators determined that Arakawa died around February 11, 2025 and Hackman died February 18, 2025 — approximately one week apart. New Mexico's Uniform Probate Code provision, N.M. Stat. Ann. § 45-2-702, sets the state default at 120 hours. The gap between their deaths exceeded 120 hours, so state law would not have treated them as dying simultaneously. But Arakawa's will contained a custom 90-day survivorship clause stating: "No person will be deemed to have survived me if the person dies within 90 days of my death." Because Hackman died within 90 days of Arakawa, her will treated him as having predeceased her. Her estate reportedly passed to charitable organizations instead of flowing into Hackman's estate.

Here is the layer-three problem the case exposes: any retirement accounts or life insurance policies naming Hackman as primary beneficiary would have answered to those accounts' own governing documents — not Arakawa's will. Those assets might have flowed into Hackman's estate regardless of her 90-day clause, making coordinated planning across all three layers the only reliable solution.

Hackman's own will, reportedly executed in 2005 and never updated, named Arakawa as sole beneficiary with no simultaneous death clause and no named alternate — a 20-year-old document that left his estate exposed to exactly the kind of uncertainty the clause is designed to prevent.

How to Add a Simultaneous Death Clause to Your Will

Step 1 — Locate your current documents. Open your existing will and search for the words "simultaneous," "survivorship," "survival," or "common disaster." If none appear, your will is silent and state law is your fallback — which may not match your wishes.

Step 2 — Choose your survivorship window. A 30-day period avoids double probate in nearly all accident scenarios and is the most common clause length. A 90-day period — as in Arakawa's will — is favored when the estate is large or when family structure is complex. Avoid survivorship conditions exceeding six months: under 26 U.S.C. § 2056(b)(3), a survivorship condition longer than six months causes assets to lose the federal estate tax marital deduction, which can trigger unnecessary estate tax on large estates.

Step 3 — Use precise language. A basic simultaneous death clause reads: "No person shall be deemed to have survived me for the purpose of taking under this Will unless such person survives me by thirty (30) days." Name your alternate beneficiaries clearly so the executor knows exactly where assets flow if the primary beneficiary does not meet the window. A residuary clause handles the catch-all for anything not specifically addressed.

Step 4 — Mirror the language in your trust. If you have a revocable living trust, add an identical survivorship window. Mismatches between a will and a trust are among the most frequent estate-planning errors attorneys see. See will vs. living trust for a full comparison of how these two documents interact.

Step 5 — Update every beneficiary designation form. Log into each retirement account, insurance policy, and POD account. Confirm a contingent beneficiary is named on every one. This is the non-probate equivalent of a simultaneous death clause. It takes 10 minutes per account and costs nothing.

Step 6 — Execute the will correctly for your state. Requirements vary. Most states require two adult witnesses and allow a self-proving affidavit to streamline probate later. See will witness requirements for a state-by-state overview. You can create your will online with Pactlio, which generates state-specific drafts — including this clause — plus complete execution instructions as a package for attorney review.

Step 7 — Review every three to five years. Marriage, divorce, a move to a new state, the birth of children, a significant change in estate value, or the death of a named beneficiary all warrant a full review. See how to update or revoke a will for the process. Hackman's 20-year-old will is a reminder that estate documents are not set-and-forget.

If you have minor children, the simultaneous death clause intersects directly with guardianship. When both parents die in the same event, the clause determines which parent's will controls at the moment of death — and therefore which guardianship nomination governs. See how to choose a guardian for your children to ensure that nomination is unambiguous and properly documented.

State-by-State: How the Rules Vary

Not every state uses the same standard. Two of the most populated states — California and Florida — are significant outliers that catch many people off guard.

State	Default rule	Survivorship window	Key statute
California	"Clear and convincing evidence" required to prove survival; no automatic hour window	Evidence-based (no fixed period)	Cal. Prob. Code § 220
Florida	"Insufficient evidence" standard; no automatic 120-hour period	Evidence-based (no fixed period)	Fla. Stat. § 732.601
Texas	120-hour rule for both intestate and testate succession	120 hours (5 days)	Tex. Est. Code §§ 121.052, 121.101
New Mexico	120-hour rule (Uniform Probate Code state)	120 hours (5 days)	N.M. Stat. Ann. § 45-2-702
New York	120-hour rule (adopted Uniform Simultaneous Death Act)	120 hours (5 days)	N.Y. EPTL Article 2
North Carolina	120-hour rule (Revised Simultaneous Death Act)	120 hours (5 days)	N.C.G.S. § 28A-24-1 et seq.
England / Wales	Eldest person presumed to die first when order is uncertain	n/a	Law of Property Act 1925 § 184

California does not impose an automatic survival period. Under Cal. Prob. Code § 220, any person who can show by clear and convincing evidence that they survived you — even by seconds — can inherit, unless your will says otherwise. Cal. Prob. Code § 21109 reinforces this: a transferee who fails to survive takes nothing, but the statute sets no minimum window. A written clause in your will is your only reliable protection. If you are in California, see Pactlio's California wills guide for state-specific drafting notes.

Florida uses a similar evidence-based approach under Fla. Stat. § 732.601. Florida has not adopted the Uniform Probate Code's automatic 120-hour rule; a beneficiary who survived you by any provable amount of time can inherit. The clause in your will is not optional in Florida — it is the only mechanism that sets a meaningful window. See Pactlio's Florida wills guide for more.

Texas provides a stronger default: Tex. Est. Code § 121.101 treats a devisee who does not survive by 120 hours as having predeceased the testator, and § 121.052 applies the same rule in intestate succession. Even so, a custom clause extending the window to 30 or 90 days provides significantly more protection for blended families. See Pactlio's Texas wills guide for the full picture.

In states without the 120-hour rule, the common law historical standard was even harsher: courts had to determine who died first based on any available evidence, however thin. A 1967 California case found that a wife had survived her husband by 1/150,000 of a second — a finding that allowed her estate to inherit from his. The Uniform Simultaneous Death Act was designed specifically to end that kind of hair-splitting litigation. A custom survivorship clause makes the litigation moot.

For a full comparison of what happens when there is no plan at all, see what happens if you die without a will — simultaneous intestate deaths produce outcomes that can differ radically from anything either spouse would have wanted, and the timeline for resolving them is long. See also how long does probate take to understand why double probate compounds the delay for your beneficiaries.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Assuming your state's default protects you. California and Florida residents have no automatic 120-hour backstop. Even in states with the 120-hour rule, that window is far shorter than most accident survival scenarios — a couple who die five and a half days apart falls outside it entirely without a custom clause.
• Drafting a will clause but ignoring the trust. Mismatched survivorship windows between a will and a revocable trust let different assets follow different rules. If your trust passes assets to a beneficiary four days after death but your will requires 30 days, your estate plan is internally contradictory.
• Skipping contingent beneficiaries on accounts. Your will clause has no reach over life insurance, IRAs, or payable-on-death accounts. A missing contingent beneficiary means the insurer or financial institution applies its own contractual default — often a short or ambiguous standard.
• Using a survivorship period longer than six months without tax advice. Survivorship conditions that exceed six months can disqualify assets from the federal estate tax marital deduction under 26 U.S.C. § 2056(b)(3), turning a planning decision into a tax problem.
• Never updating a will after a major life event. Hackman's reportedly 20-year-old will with no simultaneous death clause illustrates the risk plainly. Marriage, divorce, relocation, birth of children, and substantial changes in asset values all warrant a fresh review.
• Writing the clause for the wrong document. Some people add survivorship language only to a trust and assume it protects the will, or vice versa. Each document governs only the assets that flow through it. Both need the clause.

If you are ready to build a new will with a simultaneous death clause already included, create your will online and Pactlio's guided interview will cover this provision as part of a complete, state-specific draft — ready for your attorney to review.

Sources

• Uniform Simultaneous Death Act (1940, revised 1993), Cornell Law School LII: https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/uniform_simultaneous_death_act
• N.M. Stat. Ann. § 45-2-702 (2024), Requirement of survival by 120 hours: https://law.justia.com/codes/new-mexico/chapter-45/article-2/part-7/section-45-2-702/
• Tex. Est. Code § 121.052, Required Period of Survival for Intestate Succession: https://law.justia.com/codes/texas/2013/estates-code/title-2/subtitle-c/chapter-121
• Tex. Est. Code § 121.101, Required Period of Survival for Devisee: https://codes.findlaw.com/tx/estates-code/est-sect-121-101/
• Cal. Prob. Code § 220, Simultaneous death — official California Legislature: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PROB&sectionNum=220.
• Cal. Prob. Code § 21109, Failure to survive transferor: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PROB&sectionNum=21109.
• Fla. Stat. § 732.601, Simultaneous Death Law: https://codes.findlaw.com/fl/title-xlii-estates-and-trusts/fl-st-sect-732-601/
• Law of Property Act 1925 § 184 (England and Wales): https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo5/15-16/20/section/184
• 26 U.S.C. § 2056(b)(3), Estate Tax Marital Deduction — time limitation on survivorship: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/2056
• N.C.G.S. § 28A-24-1 et seq. (2024), 120-Hour Survivorship Requirement; Revised Simultaneous Death Act: https://law.justia.com/codes/north-carolina/chapter-28a/article-24/
• Keystone Law Group, "Who Will Inherit Gene Hackman's Estate?": https://keystone-law.com/gene-hackman-estate
• Nielsen Law (Austin Estate Planning), "Gene Hackman & Survivorship": https://estateplanatx.com/gene-hackman/
• Probate Calculator, average probate cost data by state: https://probatecalculator.org/

This article is general information, not legal advice. Laws vary by jurisdiction. Pactlio generates professional drafts for review — have a licensed attorney review anything important.