wills and inheritance

[Guest]

HI, Can anyone tell me what is the situation of a person has made a will leaving part of his estate to another person, and that person has subsequently died.Does the inheritance pass to his wife who is next of kin? or is his share divided between the remaining inheritors.

[Amethyst]

Do you have the wording of the will at all ? Often with specific legacies there is a clause about what happens if the beneficiary dies within xx days, or pre-deceases the testator. Sometimes the legacy fails and is redistributed in the estate, and sometimes it will still pass but to the deceased beneficiaries estate - the will wording is important.

Is the wife a residual beneficiary ?

Are the other beneficiaries, beneficiaries of the residual amount or of specific legacies ?

[Guest]

Thank you Amethyst for your repIy, I do not know the details of the will, but I now know that the result will depend on the wording of the will, i will make further inquiries.

[Amethyst]

Yip sorry, there isn't going to be an answer until you have the wording of the will - also the dates of death of testator and deceased beneficiary if there is a 28 day etc clause.

[Peridot]

Hi Johnem,

As Amethyst has indicated it will depend on the exact wording of the Will and also the sort of legacy that was left. Generally a specific gift such as an amount of money or a specific item such as a painting being left to someone who predeceases the testator (person whose Will it is) the gift would fail so the money or item falls back into the estate to be divided with the residue. This may not be the case if the Will was drafted to deal with the situation of the beneficiary dying before the testator.

If we are looking at a beneficiary who is to receive a share of the residue of the estate then there are a number of scenarios. The residue may have been drafted to say what happens in this situation something along the lines of:-

'to pay the residue to X and Y or to the survivor of them; SAVE that if either of them fails to survive me then to pay his/her share equally to those of his/her children who do survive me'

In order to be clearer and point you in the right direction we would need the wording of the Will.