Gifts of Residue

[Syntaxian]

My late Uncle left a Last Will and Testament that has now proceeded through Probate.




He left quite a significant Estate in which he has applied Gifts of Residue to his brother and sister, my uncle and aunt, with the wording ‘as shall survive me and if more than one in equal shares absolutely but if this gift fails then the following provisions shall apply instead.’




He then goes on to declare that his Estate shall be distributed equally to his nieces and nephews.




My questions are, his brother died before him, so does this constitute a failure of the gift and, if so, does the clause relating to his nieces and nephews apply, or does his sister automatically receive the deceased brother’s proportion of the Estate?




Thank you in advance of any advice!

[des8]

The gift is to his brother and sister, and if they both survive him it is left in equal proportions (ie half each), but if only one survives him that person receives it all.
If neither survive the gift fails, and then it passes to nieces and nephews

[des8]

Woke up in middle of the night thinking that seems odd.
I wonder if the full wording of those clauses might suggest he was leaving to his brother & sister in equal shares if they survive him, but if either do not survive him their individual share will pass to his nephews and nieces

Tagging Peridot for clarification

[Amethyst]

You need the next part of the will
"the following provisions shall apply instead."
as how that is worded will be key. As a stand alone clause without any 'following provisions' the full residue would go to the surviving sibling. Does the provisions part refer to the nieces & nephews as issue of the siblings, anything about substitution etc ? If you can type that bit up it'll make things clearer.