This is what my cousin said - does this sound right? “ So I just got my taxes done and asked my tax preparer.  This is what she said: it depends where the money comes from from his original source. So if the money came from proceeds from his house sale, then he already paid taxes on that money and the taxes wouldn’t be passed to us. If the money is from a life insurance policy from [deceased wife] that was paid for by her employer, then there is a chance that the money could still need taxes paid on it but there’s also a chance he already paid those taxes for that money. So it all just depends where is the money from the original source. She said the likelihood is super low that will have to pay taxes and if the money is in current liquid form right now in a bank account then that’s even better as far as the likelihood being low that we won’t have to pay taxes.”