Understanding Wills

hamer

Hi,
I have come across a will template which can be taylored to your own circumstances. There is a clause in it which I don't quite understand so I am questioning the need for it to be included.
The clause  is as follows:

To receive any part of the Residue Fund under this Will, a beneficiary must survive me by 30 (thirty) days unless both of us die in circumstances where it cannot be known which of us survived the other in which case the 30 (thirty) day survival condition shall not apply.

Any advice would be welcome.

hamer 

Keep_pedalling

A will is one of the most important documents you will every make, please do not try to DIY this, use a solicitor.

hamer

Keep_pedalling, thanks for your advice. I've not said that I'm going down this route, just re-searching it at the moment but I would still like to know what this clause is all about.

hamer.

Mojisola

hamer said:

I have come across a will template which can be taylored to your own circumstances. There is a clause in it which I don't quite understand so I am questioning the need for it to be included.
The clause  is as follows:

To receive any part of the Residue Fund under this Will, a beneficiary must survive me by 30 (thirty) days unless both of us die in circumstances where it cannot be known which of us survived the other in which case the 30 (thirty) day survival condition shall not apply.

Clauses like this are put in wills to simplify probate if a beneficiary doesn't survive for a certain length of time.

Say A left B an inheritance in their will.

A and B are in an accident together.

A dies first and then B a week later.

Without that clause, B would inherit from A's will.

Probate would have to be completed for A's will which could delay dealing with B's estate.

The money left to B would eventually be distributed according to B's will.

If there is such a clause, both estates can be dealt with immediately and what would have been B's share will be divided according to instructions left in A's will.

hamer

Thanks for the explanation Mojisola

TBagpuss

Mojisola is right - although the wording you quote is odd - it would be strange to have a situation where it wasn't known to within 30 days which person dies first, and normally a clause about surviving 28 / 30 days is designed to avoid the situation where you either have to prove, or make assumptions about who died first - so excluding it where it's uncertain defeats one of the objectives of having it! 

Where two people die together ( e.g if a husband and wife were both killed in the same car crash) then I think the normal assumption is that he older of the two died first, but in a case like that, it would still make sense for any survivorship clause to operate as it would avoid the situation Mojisola has set out, where A's estate passes to B and is distributed under their will, as opposed to any legacy A leaves to B failing.

but the basic advice must remain, that unless you know enough abut will writing to answer the question with confidence yourself, you're better off getting it done properly than trying t DIY it.

heck, I know a fair bit about wills and probate and I got my will drawn up by a professional because while I know a fair amount, it's not my job, and so I don't keep abreast of all the updated court decisions, guidance or changes in the law

Mojisola

TBagpuss said:

heck, I know a fair bit about wills and probate and I got my will drawn up by a professional because while I know a fair amount, it's not my job, and so I don't keep abreast of all the updated court decisions, guidance or changes in the law

I second this - I wrote instructions to our solicitor explaining (clearly, I thought) how we wanted one tranche of money to be distributed, only to find he had interpreted my instructions differently - and his interpretation was valid.  I knew what I wanted and so I didn't notice how what I'd written could be viewed in more than one way.