You and your spouse planned for one of you to carry on.
You named each other as beneficiaries and discussed how the surviving spouse would care for your family.
It is understandable if you never asked what happens when neither of you can.
What happens if spouses die at the same time—or only days apart?
A complete estate plan should answer three questions:
Who inherits first?
How long must that person survive?
Who inherits if they do not survive for the required period?
You may remember the deaths of actor Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, in 2025. Authorities concluded that Arakawa died first and that Hackman died approximately one week later.
Their story is a heartbreaking reminder that spouses do not always have months or years between their deaths to review and update an estate plan.
For your family, that raises a practical question:
If you leave everything to each other, what happens when neither of you is there to carry on?
Surviving a spouse by a few hours or days does not always mean inheriting. Your legal documents, the rules governing each asset, and applicable state law all help determine what happens next.
Through the Life & Legacy Planning® process, these questions are addressed while you and your spouse are still able to choose the outcome together.
What Happens If Spouses Die at the Same Time?
If you leave most of your assets to your spouse, you probably imagine that person using the money and property for many years.
But suppose your spouse dies only two days after you.
Who receives those assets next?
Imagine that your will leaves your property to your spouse. Your spouse’s will leaves their estate to children from a previous relationship.
For property passing under your will, the question becomes whether your spouse lived long enough to satisfy the required survivorship period.
If your spouse satisfied the requirement, the property might first pass into their estate and then to the beneficiaries named in their plan.
If your spouse did not satisfy the requirement, your documents and applicable state law determine who receives the property instead.
That difference can be especially important in a blended family.
You may want to provide for your spouse while also preserving an inheritance for your own children. Your plan must address both goals—including what should happen if you and your spouse die within a short time of each other.
Probate is the court-supervised process used to administer an estate. Property passing through probate at both deaths may need to be administered through two estates.
However, two deaths do not automatically mean two probate proceedings for every asset.
Property held in trust or passing directly through a beneficiary designation may follow different rules.
The bottom line: When two deaths occur close together, a difference of only a few hours or days may affect which document controls and who ultimately inherits.
What a Survivorship Clause Actually Does
A survivorship clause states how long a beneficiary must live after you to receive an inheritance.
For example, your estate plan may require your spouse to survive you by 30 days.
The appropriate period depends on your goals, your broader plan, and applicable state law.
If your spouse does not survive for the required period, the clause generally treats them as having died before you for purposes of that inheritance. The plan’s backup instructions, together with applicable law, then determine who receives the assets.
Return to the example in which your spouse dies two days after you.
If your plan contains a valid 30-day survivorship requirement, the property governed by that clause may not pass to your spouse or their estate. Instead, it would pass according to the backup instructions in your plan.
That is why naming backup beneficiaries is just as important as deciding how many days someone must survive.
A survivorship clause in your will does not automatically change every asset you own.
It may not control:
Life insurance
Retirement accounts
Payable-on-death accounts
Transfer-on-death accounts
Jointly owned property
Assets governed by a trust
Each asset should be reviewed according to its ownership, beneficiary designation, governing contract, and applicable law.
The bottom line: A survivorship clause may prevent an unnecessary second transfer, but it must be coordinated with the assets it is intended to govern.
The 120-Hour Rule Is a Default, Not Your Family’s Plan
What happens if your documents do not include a survivorship period?
State law may provide a default rule.
The Uniform Simultaneous Death Act uses 120 hours—or five days—as the default survivorship period. In states following that approach, a person generally must survive another person by at least 120 hours to inherit, unless the governing document or applicable law provides otherwise.
New York law also uses a 120-hour survivorship requirement in many situations. Its application and exceptions depend on the governing documents, the type of property involved, and the specific circumstances.
This means living two days longer may not be enough to inherit.
But the five-day rule does not apply in every state or to every asset. Your will, trust, beneficiary forms, or other governing documents may establish different instructions.
A default rule cannot know:
Whether you want assets preserved for your own children
Whether you are part of a blended family
Whether a beneficiary has special needs
Whether you want to support a spouse’s children
Whether certain property should remain on one side of the family
What protections your beneficiaries may need
A longer survivorship period is not automatically better.
The language should reflect your wishes, your assets, your family structure, and the law that applies.
The bottom line: State law can provide a backup rule, but it cannot choose the outcome that best reflects your family’s values.
A Joint Trust Does Not Make the Question Disappear
Couples with a joint revocable trust may assume that the trust automatically answers every question involving deaths that occur close together.
It may not.
The trust still needs to explain:
What happens after the first spouse dies
Whether the surviving spouse must live for a specified period
What happens if the survivor dies during that period
How the remaining assets are divided after both spouses have died
Which beneficiaries receive each share
What happens to separate property
Retirement accounts, life insurance proceeds, separately owned property, and assets that were never transferred into the trust may create additional questions.
For blended families, the trust may need to support the surviving spouse while preserving the inheritance intended for each spouse’s children.
Depending on the family’s goals, that might involve:
Creating separate shares
Keeping some assets in trust after the first spouse’s death
Providing income or support for the surviving spouse
Preserving remaining assets for specific children
Giving different instructions for particular property
There is no single survivorship clause that works for every couple.
The trust language must coordinate with asset ownership, family relationships, beneficiary designations, tax considerations, and the outcome both spouses intend.
The bottom line: A joint trust is a planning tool. It works only when its instructions match your assets and the family outcome you want.
Beneficiary Forms Need to Provide the Same Answer
Your will and trust are not the only instructions that matter.
Life insurance, retirement accounts, and certain bank or investment accounts generally pass according to their beneficiary designations.
Those forms must work with the rest of your estate plan.
Consider a life insurance policy that names your spouse as the primary beneficiary and an adult child as the contingent beneficiary.
If your spouse dies shortly after you, who receives the death benefit?
The answer may depend on the policy, its beneficiary designation, any survivorship language, and applicable state law—not simply the terms of your will.
A planning review should compare the beneficiary forms with:
Your will
Your trust
The ownership of your assets
Your family structure
Your survivorship instructions
The role each beneficiary is intended to play
Coordination with financial, insurance, and tax professionals may also be necessary.
Your family will not experience the trust, retirement account, life insurance policy, and home as separate planning projects.
When something happens, all of those pieces arrive at once.
The bottom line: Survivorship instructions are only as effective as the coordination among your legal documents, asset ownership, beneficiary forms, and contracts.
Your Family Needs an Answer Before the Emergency
When spouses die within a short time of each other, the family may not have the time or emotional capacity to reconstruct what each person intended.
The plan should already answer questions such as:
If we die hours or days apart, whose beneficiaries receive the assets?
Would any property pass through two estates or probate proceedings?
Do our will, trust, asset titles, and beneficiary forms provide the same answer?
Does that answer still fit our family today?
Clear legal documents answer the legal questions.
An ongoing planning relationship helps your family carry out those answers.
At Starsia Law, we help families clarify these instructions before a crisis. We review the plan as assets and relationships change and help ensure that the people you love know who to contact.
When something happens, your family should not have to locate every document alone or guess which professional to call first.
With an ongoing Life & Legacy Planning® relationship, someone already understands the plan, knows the people involved, and can help identify which assets, documents, and professional advisors are needed for the next decisions.
The bottom line: Clear documents establish the legal instructions. An ongoing relationship helps your family carry them out when it matters.
What You Can Do Right Now
Review your current documents for the words “survive,” “survivor,” or “survivorship.”
Identify:
The survival period required for your spouse
The survival period required for other beneficiaries
Who inherits if a beneficiary does not survive long enough
Whether your will and trust use consistent instructions
Whether your beneficiary forms address deaths occurring close together
Whether the outcome still reflects your family today
Do not change a beneficiary form or copy a survivorship clause from the internet based only on this article.
State law and document language matter. The appropriate answer depends on your family, assets, beneficiary designations, and goals.
At Starsia Law, we do not use one-size-fits-all planning. We help families create Life & Legacy Plans® that reflect their relationships, assets, and values.
Our relationship does not end when the documents are signed. When something happens, your family knows who to call.
Schedule a complimentary 15-minute discovery call to review how your estate plan handles deaths that occur close together.
This article is a service of Starsia Law, a Personal Family Lawyer® Firm. We don’t just draft documents; we ensure you make informed and empowered decisions about life and death, for yourself and the people you love. That's why we offer a Life & Legacy Planning Session™, during which you will get more financially organized than you’ve ever been before and make all the best choices for the people you love.
The content is sourced from Personal Family Lawyer® for use by Personal Family Lawyer® firms, a source believed to be providing accurate information. This material was created for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as ERISA, tax, legal, or investment advice. If you are seeking legal advice specific to your needs, such advice services must be obtained on your own separate from this educational material.