Terms in the will

justcheckingtobesure

Hi, can anyone please confirm what the following means in my relative's will (I am Executor): "Upon trust absolutely in equal shares for the following seven people or for the survivors of them" Of the seven, five were still alive when the relative died. None are children of the relative. I think it means the estate is settled equally between the surviving five named people. Is that right? Thank you!

Linton

I believe you are correct.

elsien

What about any children the two people who died had? Would they not count as survivors?

Keep_pedalling

That is how I read it. 

FlorayG

I would say it could mean for the survivors of those two who died - so say one of them had a wife and three children, those four people get 1/7 of the estate between them. Or as you say it could mean those of the seven who survive. Not very clear though is it? 'the survivors of them' means different to 'those surviving' though so I would ask a solicitor - preferably the one who drafted the will!

Keep_pedalling

If it was meant to pass to the children of the deceased beneficiaries I would expect the term per stirpes to be used if the will was drawn up professionally. 

Flugelhorn

Keep_pedalling said:

If it was meant to pass to the children of the deceased beneficiaries I would expect the term per stirpes to be used if the will was drawn up professionally. 

agree, that would have made it clear 

Linton

Yes, and if the will was drawn up by an amateur I dont think they would use the word "survivors" for the children of the beneficiaries.

p00hsticks

something along the lines of 'in equal shares between those of these seven named people who survive me' would have been clearer

justcheckingtobesure

Thank you all! There were no surviving children or spouses for the beneficiaries who pre-deceased my relative (only surviving siblings) - and the will was drawn up professionally. So it would seem we all agree that the estate is divided equally between the 5 named people still alive.... thank you!