Well, it looks like Linda stands to benefit handsomely from the death. The estate will get back the bond KL posted for the criminal trial - $5 million worth of family property, including one (or more) of his children's home mortgages/deeds.
The $43 million judgment goes away. And one TV legal commentator said that since KL had never given his deposition for the civil trial, or even had the opportunity to plead the 5th Amendment on it, it may be very difficult to prosecute it. (This was from a person who is nearly always pro-defense, so I take it with a grain of salt, but it sounds reasonable on the face of it - and they no longer have the indictment or conviction on all those charges from the now-deleted criminal trial to which they can point in the civil trial.)
Lay's death won't affect Skilling's conviction or sentencing, though, other than he will be in court alone. I noticed they said October 23 was the sentencing date, so I must have missed a motion somewhere - last I recalled, it was supposed to be 9-11-06, which was so symbolic.
Most of that money is gone to pay for high-priced attorneys' fees.
The civil trials would have been a paper victory for the plaintiffs anyway - nothing split 12,000 ways is still nothing.