The Loss of Inheritance Claim, Revisited

Where allowed by statute or case law, loss of inheritance can be an element of economic damages in a wrongful death claim. From a legal perspective, three factors must be proven in order to establish a claim for loss of inheritance. These factors are a showing that it is likely that the potential beneficiary or beneficiaries would have outlived the decedent, a demonstration that it is probable that the decedent would have accumulated sufficient funds to provide an inheritable estate, and the establishment of a probablility that the beneficiary or beneficiaries would have received that inheritance. From an economist’s perspective, the most important of these is a showing that the decedent would have accumulated sufficient funds to provide an inheritable estate. This paper provides a framework, with a few variations, that can be used to calculate damages for a loss of inheritance claim.