Does a structured settlement annuity from a personal injury claim pay out to the estate when the injured recipient dies?

It depends on how the specific settlement and annuity were structured at the time the claim was resolved. There's no single rule that applies to every structured settlement. Many structured settlements include a guaranteed minimum payment period built in specifically to address this scenario, so that if the injured person dies before that period ends, the remaining guaranteed payments continue to a named beneficiary or to the estate rather than simply stopping. Others may be arranged as a pure lifetime annuity with no such guarantee, in which case payments can end entirely on death, with nothing further paid to the estate.

Because these terms were fixed when the original settlement was negotiated, sometimes many years before the death, the actual answer for a specific case lives in the settlement and annuity documents themselves, not in a general assumption about how these arrangements typically work. The insurer that issued the annuity, or the lawyer who handled the original personal injury claim, can usually confirm the exact terms.

If you're an estate trustee dealing with a structured settlement, request a copy of the original settlement and annuity documents early, and contact the issuing insurer directly to understand what, if anything, continues to be paid.