Attempted Robbery In Cape Town
ChatterBank1 min ago
No best answer has yet been selected by johnbuck05. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.
For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.It does NOT go to his next of kin save in exceptional circumstances.
If the deceased beneficiary was the son of the person making the will, and has children or grandchildren still alive, then those children / grandchildren get the bequest. Otherwise it goes into the residuary estate of the deceased.
Exception:
If the person named in the will dies after the maker of the will but before the estate has been distributed - then it becomes part of the estate of the person named in the will and is distributed as his own will specifies.
It's also possible that the original will specified what was to happen in these circumstances - if it did then it overrides the above.
Erimus - Can't follow your first para. If by "passing is absolute" you mean the bequest is an outright one then I don't think you are right to say it would go to the next of kin unless - as Dzug says - the original beneficiary was a son etc. of the deceased. Unless the special rules related to this come into play the share of the estate which the dead beneficiary would have received is returned - as you said - to the deceased's estate and shared out among the other beneficiaries.