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Wills, trusts and estates
Part of the common law series
Wills
Legal history of wills Joint wills and mutual wills Will contract · Codicil Holographic will · Oral will
Sections Attestation clause Residuary clause Incorporation by reference
Contest Testamentary capacity Undue influence Insane delusion · Fraud No-contest clause
Property disposition Lapse and anti-lapse Ademption · Abatement Satisfaction of legacies Acts of independent significance Elective share · Pretermitted heir Wills and conflict of laws
Trusts
Express · Resulting Constructive
Common types Bare · Discretionary Accumulation and Maintenance Interest in possession Charitable · Purpose · Incentive
Other types Protective · Spendthrift Life insurance · Remainder Life interest Reversionary interest Testamentary Honorary · Asset-protection Special needs (Supplemental Needs)
Governing doctrines Pour-over will Cy-près doctrine Trusts and conflict of laws
Estate administration
Intestacy · Testator · Probate Power of appointment Simultaneous death · Slayer rule Laughing heir · Advancement Disclaimer of interest · Inheritance tax
Related topics
Advance directive (Living will) Totten trust
Other common law areas
Contract · Tort · Property Criminal law · Evidence
v • d • e

Lapse and anti-lapse are complementary concepts under the law of wills, which address the disposition of property that is willed to someone who dies before the testator (the writer of the will).

[edit] Lapse

At common law, lapse occurs when the beneficiary or the devisee under the will predeceases the testator, invalidating the gift. The gift would instead revert to the residuary estate or be granted under the law of intestate succession.

If the deceased beneficiary was intended to inherit part or all of the residuary estate, then that portion of the estate would pass by intestate succession, as though the testator had left no will. This rule is referred to as the doctrine of no residue of a residue, because the portion of the residuary estate that did not itself pass under the will could not be considered part of the residuary estate at all.

Under section 2-604(b) of the uniform probate code, "if the residue is devised to two or more persons, the share of a residuary devisee that fails for any reason passes to the other residuary devisee, or to other residuary devisees in proportion to the interest of each in the remaining part of the residue." Simply put, if there are two parties in the remainder and one has not survived, the entirety of the remainder goes to the surviving residuary devisee.

In jurisdictions which have adopted the Uniform Simultaneous Death Act, or the 1991 version of the Uniform Probate Code (but not the previous Uniform Probate Code), any devisee who dies within 120 hours after the testator is legally considered to have died before the testator. In such jurisdictions, only a devisee who survives more than 120 hours after the testator is considered to have met this "statutory survival test."

[edit] Anti-lapse statutes

Most common-law jurisdictions have enacted an anti-lapse statute to address this situation. The anti-lapse statute "saves" the bequest if it has been made to parties specified in the statute, usually members of the testator's immediate family, if those family members had descendants. If this is the case, then the descendants of the deceased beneficiary will inherit whatever was willed to that beneficiary. The testator can prevent the operation of an anti-lapse statute by providing that the gift will only go to the named beneficiary if that beneficiary survives the testator, or by simply stating in the will that the anti-lapse statute does not apply.

Another modification to the common law of lapse is the elimination of the "no residue of a residue" rule where multiple beneficiaries are named to inherit the residue. The modern view is that where a beneficiary was intended to inherit part of the residuary estate who predeceases the testator, and that beneficiary is not covered by the anti-lapse statute, then that beneficiary's inheritance will return to the residuary estate, to be inherited by the other beneficiaries to whom the residue has been willed.