Death of beneficiaries

Davepmichael

So, my wife's biological father dies (haven't had any contact since she was 2).
There is a will, but ALL of the beneficiaries are deceased. What happens to the estate? I assumed rules of intestacy but things are complicated by my wife and her brother (the only children of the deceased) being specifically written out of the will (the last section of the will says they shall not inherit any part of the estate).
Due to the beneficiaries predeceasing the father, is the will void? Does it go to rules of intestacy? Does it come to my wife and her brother? Or their children? I'm struggling to find an answer and cannot contact the solicitor (also executor) at the moment.
Thanks for any advice

Dave

Brighty

Who are the beneficiaries? Are they other children/decendents of the father?

According to here
https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/inheritance-tax-manual/ihtm12084
If a beneficiary dies before the testator, then that gift fails,unless that beneficiary is a child/grandchild, then it would pass to their children.

If all gifts fail, then it resorts to intestacy, so i assume your wife and brother inherit, regardless of being written out of the will? But that's a question for the solicitor.

Think it will all hinge on whether or not the deceased benefiaries were also children of the deceased or not and if they themselves had any children still alive.

Edit, just noticed you said wife and brother are the only children, so ignore most of my post. Intestacy should apply

Davepmichael

Beneficiaries were the parents of the deceased. No other children involved.

gettingtheresometime

Wouldn't it depend on what the will said was to happen with the bequests in the event that a beneficiary had predeceased the deceased?

Yorkshireman99

Davepmichael wrote: »

So, my wife's biological father dies (haven't had any contact since she was 2).
There is a will, but ALL of the beneficiaries are deceased. What happens to the estate? I assumed rules of intestacy but things are complicated by my wife and her brother (the only children of the deceased) being specifically written out of the will (the last section of the will says they shall not inherit any part of the estate).
Due to the beneficiaries predeceasing the father, is the will void? Does it go to rules of intestacy? Does it come to my wife and her brother? Or their children? I'm struggling to find an answer and cannot contact the solicitor (also executor) at the moment.
Thanks for any advice

Dave

It depends on the exact wording of the will but the intestacy rules probably apply. You need to contact the executor and get some indepentent paid for advice.The excutor needs to be told of the descendents but will want to check all the possible entitlements.

TBagpuss

It will depend on the wording of the will, but assuming that the will did not make any provision for the beneficiaries predeceasing, or for a residual beneficiary, then the intestacy rules will apply.

poppystar

You really need some paid for advice on this as YM says. If the will is valid and has the specific writing out of the daughter and son then it needs to be clarified as to whether this still applies. In fact the executor really needs to do this to cover themselves. Is the executor a solicitor or a lay person?

iammumtoone

If the will states the chilren are not to recive anything would the Intestacy rules apply as if the deceased didn't have children?

OP do you know the valve of the estate? Is it worth you paying to get proper legal advise? If the estate isn't worth much then I would just ask the executor.

Mojisola

iammumtoone wrote: »

If the will states the chilren are not to recive anything would the Intestacy rules apply as if the deceased didn't have children?

If the deceased was serious about not wanting the children to receive anything, the will should have had further clauses to explain what should happen if the beneficiaries had already died (quite a high probability when you make your parents your beneficiaries).

If the intestacy rules are followed, the children will inherit.

iammumtoone

Mojisola wrote: »

If the deceased was serious about not wanting the children to receive anything, the will should have had further clauses to explain what should happen if the beneficiaries had already died (quite a high probability when you make your parents your beneficiaries).

If the intestacy rules are followed, the children will inherit.

The deceased must have been serious about it otherwise they wouldn't have written it, but it seems a badly worded will and you are right the decreased should have worded it better to make sure they weren't included (if that was the wish) like leaving the money to others/charity on the death of other beneficiaries.

OP is the same solicitor acting now as oversaw the writing of the will? I would get your own independant advise if it is worthwhile as the solicitor doesn't seem very competent.

Yorkshireman99

iammumtoone wrote: »

If the will states the chilren are not to recive anything would the Intestacy rules apply as if the deceased didn't have children?

OP do you know the valve of the estate? Is it worth you paying to get proper legal advise? If the estate isn't worth much then I would just ask the executor.

The executors are not the people to ask. They need advice themselves!