presumed death
Believed to have perished
Presumed death is a legal status declared when someone has disappeared and is believed dead despite no body being found.
Courts grant this status after a period of absence—typically seven years—allowing families to settle estates, collect insurance, and remarry: He was declared a presumed death after vanishing at sea.
The designation acknowledges practical reality while leaving open the possibility, however remote, of the person's return.
- missingNot present, whereabouts unknown
- missing personUnlocated person sought by authorities
- vanishedDisappeared from sight
- without a traceDisappeared leaving no sign
- lostUnable to navigate
lost at sea · body · declared · inheritance · next of kin · life insurance · widow · search · drowning · shipwreck · plane crash · remains · closure · waiting · legal · certificate · seven years · unknown
- death lawprobate, estate tax, inheritance tax, inheritance law, executor
- Legal Fictionslegal person, personhood, John Doe, Jane Doe, corporate veil
- death recordsvital records, certified copy, obituaries, vital record, registrar
- legal statuslegal status, legal capacity, civil status, personhood, legal entity
presumed deathliving proof
Human evidence of something
alive and well · safe and sound · accounted for · resurfaced
presumed deathproof of life
Evidence someone is alive
living · resurfaced · reappeared · survival · alive and well
presume, presumed, presumes, presuming, presumption, presumptions, presumptive, presumptuous, presumptuously