Simple English definitions for legal terms
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Predecease: When someone dies before another person, it's called predecease. This is important in estate and trust law because if someone who was supposed to inherit dies before the person making the will, the inheritance might go to someone else. There are different ways to divide up an estate if someone predeceases, like giving equal shares to each branch of the family or dividing it up by generation.
Definition: Predecease means to die before another person or to fail to survive another person. In the field of estates and trusts law, it is significant when someone who is intended to be a beneficiary in a will dies before the person drafting the will, the testator.
For example, if a testator leaves a bequest to their child, but the child predeceases the testator, most jurisdictions have adopted antilapse statutes to prevent the bequest from lapsing. However, if the testator dies without leaving a will, a probate court may apply other mechanisms to determine which descendants are to inherit from the estate in accordance with intestate succession statutes.
There are different methods of distributing estates, such as:
These methods illustrate how an estate can be distributed when someone predeceases the decedent. They ensure that the estate is distributed fairly among the surviving descendants.