Vested Interest

tdd1234_uk

My 'common law' father-in-law died last year, I am an executor of his will.
His beneficiaries were his two adult children (one Son, one Daughter), and each of these has 3 adult children each.
The daughter died shortly after him. She had a common law partner.
My father-in-law's Will states that her 'issue' will take their part equally of her interest.
There is a survivorship clause in his Will that says that "any person who does not survive me by 28 days shall be for the purposes of my Will as having died in my lifetime" and his daughter did 35 days after he died, so I am thinking that his (now dead) daughter DID attain a vested interest and therefore, even though his estate is not finalised due to the house not being sold yet, that her share would have legally passed to her, for that short period she survived him.
I have been contacted by one of her issue to say that apparently her Mother's will has only one beneficiary and this is the 'newish' common law partner and that her daughters will inherit nothing from their (now dead) Mother.
Does this also now mean that her share from her father (my Father-in-Law) now goes in its entirety to this new random fella, rather than her children?
Is there anything her daughter's can do about this?

Mark_d

Yes.  The inheritance should go to this random fella rather than the daughter's children.  The daughter's children can possibly content the daughter's will but there is nothing that you can do

elsien

Clearly he wasn’t a random new fella to her given that she made the effort to put him in the will. It is surprising that they were not included, though, unless they’d had a falling out. Were any of them financially dependent on her? 

FlorayG

The daughter survived long enough to inherit so all the estate of your 'father in law' that was left to her was hers to distribute as she saw fit - in this case to her partner. Sad but legal

Keep_pedalling

Any payment you make needs to go to her estate, so it needs to go to her executors rather than directly to the sole beneficiary although these could obviously be the same people. If her children are actually going to challenge the will you consider holding back the payment until it is settled especially if the partner is also the executor.

silvercar

How old are the daughter’s children? If they were dependents of the daughter they may have some entitlement, but that would be a query on the daughter’s will not that of her father’s will. The father’s will seems clear as the daughter survived him more than 28 days, its irrespective of whether it was by 7 days or 7 years more.