This scenario (the two dying simultaneously) is actually pretty unlikely, for a couple of reasons:
- It is way more likely with people of their age (I'm assuming they're over 50) that one will die of something mundane, rather than an accident.
- Even in the case of an accident, simultaneous death is not always assumed. Very often, especially nowadays with safety cages and airbags, people get to hospital alive after even the worst car crashes, but it's the internal injuries from deceleration that kills them - at different speeds.
Yeah, it's still pretty unlikely. I think my Mom and stepdad worry about it more than I do. Mom was the one that brought it up. My attitude is that whatever happens, happens, and I hope they're both here for a long, long time.
The thing that I think is going to be a big mess though, is the fact that, once they're both gone, EVERYTHING is split 50/50. Money, houses, etc. It's not specified that I get this, stepdad's family gets that, etc. The second house is down in Florida...Grand Island or someplace like that. I think it's kinda close to Disney World. I've never seen it, and have no desire to ever live down there, so I wouldn't want to hang onto it. But, I think my stepdad's half-brother lives down there. He might. I've never even met the half-brother, and haven't seen the sister in, oh, probably 25 years.
Plus, right now Mom is 64 and my stepdad turns 61 in July. They're both still fairly healthy, although he gets stressed and frazzled, I think he has high blood pressure, and too much of his self-worth was tied up in his job. Now that they're both retired, I think it's wearing on him. So, I think it's stuff like that, that ensures that she's going to outlive him. But, you never know!
Anyway, by the time they're both passed on, presuming they live out an "average" lifespan, I don't think any inheritance I received would make much difference. Even if it happened in, say, 10 years, by that time I'll most likely be retired, and unless I move and buy a more expensive place, the mortgage will be long since paid off.
Still, I'm not budgeting for any inheritance, even though I'm in my uncle's will (no kids of his own) and my grandmother's will (only grandkid) as well.
Now that I think of it, if you get an inheritance from someone other than your spouse or blood parents, you have to pay inheritance tax on EVERYTHING, right? So, whatever I got from my uncle and grandmother would be taxed? And in theory, if my Mom goes first, and then I get half the estate from my stepdad, the full amount of that would get taxed as well?
I remember my grandmother's cousin saying that when she inherited a house from her stepmother (her father passed away first), she had to pay inheritance tax on everything; there was no exempted amount.