Court asked to strip Baden-Clay of rights to murdered wife's estate
A Queensland court has been requested to declare that convicted killer Gerard Baden-Clay has no right to the $1 million estate of his murdered wife Allison.
Baden-Clay is listed as the sole beneficiary of his wife's will, which includes superannuation benefits and life insurance claims, The Courier-Mail reports.
Allison's father Geoff Dickie has formally requested the Queensland Supreme Court declare his former real estate agent son-in-law “is not entitled to obtain or receive any benefit… from the death”.
If the legal application is successful, Mr Dickie will be appointed executor of his late daughter's estate, which will be inherited by Allison's three daughters.
“Gerard is disqualified from acting as the executor of the estate because he has been convicted of murdering her,” Mr Dickie wrote in the documents submitted to the court.
The application is a formality and Baden-Clay would "not get a cent" following his conviction for his wife's April, 2012 murder in the couple's Brookfield home, a lawyer told the newspaper.
Allison signed her will over to her husband-to-be the day before their marriage began in August 1997.
Baden-Clay is listed as the sole beneficiary in his wife's will, provided he is alive, otherwise it is to be divided among their children.
The couple had three daughters together, aged 15, 13 and 10.
In documents filed last week, Mr Dickie told the court there was $236,505 sitting in an IOOF super account that had an added "crisis care" insurance policy.
The estate also includes two life insurance policies yet to be paid out – a TAL $434,069 policy and $348,497 from a Suncorp life insurance policy.
The money from the two policies has already been paid out but was placed in a trust until Baden-Clay's criminal proceedings and appeals were exhausted.
During the trial the court heard how the family was under sever financial strain while Baden-Clay engaged in a long-running affair.
Despite the massive potential windfall from her death, prosecutors did not cite the payouts as a factor in Allison's murder.
