Beneficiaries of a will

[elacsaplau]

Just wondering what the normal practice is in the following scenario.

Say a widowed parent who has 4 children makes a will in which the estate is to be divided amongst the children equally. What happens if one of the children pre-deceases the parent and the will remains unaltered? What are the normal provisions/wordings in this regard?

 

[DirectDevil]

Any accurate observations would depend on reading the entire will.

Generally, if the pre-deceased child has no children it will probably become a 3 way split.
If pre-deceased had children they should inherit on a per stirpes distribution basis.
Suppose deceased had 3 children. They will share deceased's share equally.
So, they share pre-deased's share (1/4) equally meaning that they get 1/4 x 1/3 = 1/12 of the estate each.

Some wills have a condition that survival is a condition precedent to the right to inherit.
If that applied here it would mean no inheritance to pre-deceased, their estate or issue [children].