If a beneficiary in your Will passes away the gift to him\/her may fail.<\/p>\n
You may already have read our will making tips at https:\/\/ezwills.com.sg\/will-making-tips\/<\/a> but there is one thing you need to pay attention to if you do not want to get things wrong.<\/p>\n If you name someone as a beneficiary and that person passes away before you two things can happen:<\/p>\n Which of the two possibilities applies may depend on Section 26 of the Wills Act.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The general rule is that if any beneficiary passes away before the will maker the gift will lapse (ie fail). That beneficiary\u2019s children receives nothing. Of course when a beneficiary dies if a will maker is able to he\/she may just write a Will again. Simple. If he\/she doesn’t do that then that beneficiary will miss out as a general rule.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n However, if the beneficiary is a child or \u201cissue\u201d of the will maker (ie grandchild, great-grandchild), Section 26 creates an exception.<\/p>\n Section 26 is not easy to read or understand. You can find it here: https:\/\/sso.agc.gov.sg\/Act\/WA1838<\/a> .<\/p>\n If all the conditions set out in Section 26 are met then the gift \u2018shall not lapse\u2019.<\/p>\n The conditions set out in Section 26 are fairly straightforward. They are not difficult to satisfy (eg there must be no contrary intention to Section 26 being applied).<\/p>\n So if the beneficiary is a child of the will maker the gift will not automatically fail if that child passes away before the will maker because of Section 26’s operation.<\/p>\n Instead the Will shall take effect as if A died immediately after the will maker\u2019s death.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n When a will maker is making a gift to a child or other descendant any off-spring of such a descendant is also a blood relative of the will maker.<\/p>\n Being a blood relative the will maker will have good reason to want to see the gift \u2018pass on\u2019 to the next generation instead of automatically failing.<\/p>\n Section 26 merely recognises that this is a common wish of most will makers.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n At Ezwills we give our users a choice. They can choose to have Section 26 to apply to pass on a child’s inheritance to his\/her own children if he\/she passes away before the will maker. Otherwise our users can choose to have a deceased child’s inheritance given to other surviving beneficiaries. You can test out our systems by doing a test will here : https:\/\/ezwills.com.sg\/get-started\/\u00a0<\/a>.<\/p>\n Will templates or Will samples available online may have clauses that cancel out Section 26. So beware.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n You may be interested in our next blog post:<\/p>\n \u201cHow does Section 26 of the Wills Act work in practice if a beneficiary passes away first?\u201d (see:<\/p>\n\n
What happens if a beneficiary dies – the General Rule<\/h3>\n
Section 26 creates an exception to the general rule<\/h3>\n
Section 26 and blood relative (logic behind Section 26)<\/h3>\n
Risk of using overseas templates and ‘generic’ Wills<\/h3>\n
Complexities and practical operation of Section 26<\/h3>\n