Uniform Simultaneous Death Law

The act governs how property is distributed when two or more people die under circumstances that make it impossible to determine who survived whom. It supplies default rules of construction for that situation, with separate treatment for property passing to beneficiaries under another person's disposition, for life insurance policies and similar contracts, and for property held in joint tenancy or by the entirety. These rules function only as gap-fillers — a contrary provision in a will or other governing instrument displaces them — and they reach only deaths occurring after the act takes effect.

Editorial summary generated from the text of this act. It is not part of the statute — read the sections below for the operative language.