Beneficiaries can use a qualified disclaimer to change distribution under a last will and testament after date of death and after probate in Pennsylvania (PA) and other states.
A beneficiary can actually refuse all or a portion of his or her share of a decedent’s probate or non probate assets.  Click here for the technical requirements for a proper qualified disclaimer.  You might wonder, why would someone in their right mind refuse an inheritance?  There are actually great estate tax, inheritance tax and asset protection motives for discaiming assets in PA and throughout the U.S.  For example, if a wealthy individual is the beneficiary of his parents’ estate, he might choose to disclaim his interest so long as the contingent beneficiaries under the will are his own children.  This would allow for the estate assets to be distributed directly from grandparents to grandchildren and thereby skipping the son’s generation of estate and inheritance tax!!  This could result in tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars of tax savings.  I do not want to oversimplify this issue because there are many important considerations including, but not limited to, 1.  Making sure the contingent beneficiaries named or through intestacy are the desired recipients, and 2.  there is no generation skipping tax that results. This is an important post mortem estate planning option that should be discussed with your estate and probate lawyer in PA and other localities. Please call Douglas L. Kaune, PA Lawyer 610-933-8069 for additional information and consultation.

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