Lapsed Legacies

Question 1

What is a lapsed legacy?

Answer 1

If a beneficiary named in a will predeceases the testator, absent an alternate disposition of the devise specified by the testator, the devise lapses into the estate’s residue UNLESS the jurisdiction’s anti-lapse statute preserve the devise for the beneficiary’s descendants .

Question 2

What is an anti-lapse statute?

Answer 2

Under an anti-lapse statute, devises will vest in the the descendant’s of the predeceased beneficiary if the predeceased beneficiary:

1. Is a blood relative of the testator; AND
2. Has descendant’s who survive the testator.

Question 3

At common law, what happens to an invalidated residuary devise?

Answer 3

At common law, an invalidated residuary devise passed to the testator’s heirs through intestate succession.

Question 4

Under the modern view, what happens to an invalidated residuary devise?

Answer 4

Under the modern view, if the residue is devised to two or more persons, an invalidated residuary devise will pass to the other residuary beneficiaries rather than the testator’s heirs.