Death of beneficiaries of a will

redvalley

My wife and I have made a will leaving everything to our 4 children in the event of us both departing. My question is what would happen if the beneficiaries (my entire imeadiate family (including me) were all unfortunately say killed in an accident? Does our estate get passed to our closest family or would the Executor make the decision on who gets what?:(

Browntoa

goes to your closest family but a chunk of it will get tied up locating them

DON79

we just made a will recently with the same thought that it all goes to our children if we both die. But in the event our whole family died, we specified that we wanted the remainder of the estate equally split between OH's parents, my parents, my sister, OH's brothers & sister....

Mojisola

redvalley wrote: »

My wife and I have made a will leaving everything to our 4 children in the event of us both departing. My question is what would happen if the beneficiaries (my entire imeadiate family (including me) were all unfortunately say killed in an accident? Does our estate get passed to our closest family or would the Executor make the decision on who gets what?:(

Whoever wrote your will should have covered this eventuality. You could choose other family members or friends or some charities to be the beneficiaries if all the other named people have died.

Do you have a clause to say what happens if any of your children predecease you? Usually a will mentions their share would pass to any children they have and, if none, would be spread between the surviving siblings.

pozalina

Mojisola wrote: »

Whoever wrote your will should have covered this eventuality.

That's what I thought. When we did ours the will writer asked us what we wanted to happen in that instance and we were very specific, as dh has adult children and a large family, whereas I have very small immediate family.

onlyroz

Thought it would follow the basic laws of intestancy, i.e. money goes down the bloodline (to children and grandchildren) and then back up it again (to parents) and then down it again (to siblings) and so on...

Mojisola

onlyroz wrote: »

Thought it would follow the basic laws of intestancy, i.e. money goes down the bloodline (to children and grandchildren) and then back up it again (to parents) and then down it again (to siblings) and so on...

Does the will say that the others will only inherit if they survive you by a set period? If so, I think that the intestacy rules would apply - https://www.youngandpearce.co.uk/intestrules.htm

If not, it depends on the tragic event.

If the whole family are killed in, say, an explosion where it's not possible to say in which order people died, then it is assumed that the eldest died first and so on. In this case, I think the youngest would inherit the whole estate and his/her estate would then be distributed according to the intestacy rules (assuming that this person has not left a will).

If the family survived long enough for their times of death to be noted, then it would depend on the order in which they died. If one of the parents was the last to die, only their blood relations would benefit. The relatives of their spouse would not be able to inherit anything.

sueeve

All this shows how important it is to get wise professional help when writing your will. There was a person on that programme about probate researchers (heir hunters) where a man wth a good deal of money had used a non pro and it wasn't done properly, so several hundred thousand went to the wrong people. You can discuss all this with a decent lawyer.(and I have absolutely no personal axe to grind, and not much money, but I still think it money well spent) For the price of a couple of evenings out you can know it is well sorted with all forseeable eventualities covered.

zfrl

sueeve wrote: »

All this shows how important it is to get wise professional help when writing your will.
...
For the price of a couple of evenings out you can know it is well sorted with all forseeable eventualities covered.

Even if you get professional help you cannot cover all foreseeable eventualities. What if those relations die? You cannot list everyone. The only thing you can do is to make sure you cover all the reasonable eventualities - the important ones. Then leave it to a charity or something.

blackcoffee

Mojisola wrote: »

Does the will say that the others will only inherit if they survive you by a set period? If so, I think that the intestacy rules would apply - www.youngandpearce.co.uk/intestrules.htm

If not, it depends on the tragic event.

If the whole family are killed in, say, an explosion where it's not possible to say in which order people died, then it is assumed that the eldest died first and so on. In this case, I think the youngest would inherit the whole estate and his/her estate would then be distributed according to the intestacy rules (assuming that this person has not left a will).

If the family survived long enough for their times of death to be noted, then it would depend on the order in which they died. If one of the parents was the last to die, only their blood relations would benefit. The relatives of their spouse would not be able to inherit anything.

when we did our wills we were told that if we all died together, it would be assumed that as I am younger than my husband I died last, so the money would go to my family! so we have worded it to be split equally between our nieces and nephews on both ours sides.