A wills question

[hippospot]

Can anyone answer this for me please?

If I leave my estate to three beneficiaries, A, B and C, but C dies before I update my will, if I die will my estate be split two ways (A and B) or will C's beneficiary get one third?

Ideally I suppose if C dies I should re-write my will to remove them.

Thanks

When you write your will you put in clauses to explain what should happen if any of the beneficiaries should predecease you.

You could say that if A, B or C should predecease you then their share should be divided equally between the other two, or you could decide that their share should be divided equally between their children if they have any.

No need to rewrite the will.

I’m not a lawyer but I’m pretty sure it depends on whether C has children or not. If so, I think they inherit C’s share.

But if C has no children, dies before you, and left their money to eg Battersea Dogs’ Home, their share of your money would be split between A and B.

If you don’t want this to happen, you can say so in your will.

Thanks, I'll check the wording. C does have a child but I don't want their child to inherit anything.

Normally, if a will doesn't say otherwise, then if one of the beneficiaries dies before the person who made the will then the gift to them fails and will be distributed according to the residuary of your will.

However, if C is your child and they die before you do then any gift will be inherited by their child, your grandchild, in their place.

So, have a look at the will and see what your will says about the residuary; it may be called something like "Gift of Residue" or "Residuary Gift" etc.

This will explain what will happen to any gift that fails. It may say that any failed gift is to be distributed among the remaining beneficiaries or something else entirely.

If you don't want this to happen then you can change your will to reflect what you do want to happen. So, for example, if C is your child and you would not want your grandchild to inherit then you can write the will to ensure this happens.