When I wrote my will, I planned to give a substantial amount of money to a friend. She has since pre-deceased me. She was single with no children. Will her brothers stand to inherit the funds? Do I have to amend the will or will a letter of intent suffice?
Depending on your financial situation and your feelings about your residuary legatees, you might like to make a bequest to charity in memory of your friend. Don’t do it yourself! The ‘home-made will’ is a traditional lawyer’s toast, because of the litigation it leads to! And a ‘letter of intent’ will have no effect at all. Codicils are rarely used today because it is simpler to make a new will (an easy change on the old word processor file), and codicils require all the formalities of a new will. To change your will, go to a lawyer. If you want to remember your friend, and don’t want to change your will, you could make it a gift now while you can ‘supervise’ how it is used. Best wishes, Margaret LLB FCCA
(PS I've now completed my profile)
Bottom line - a simple phone call to your lawyer can answer your questions and tell you the best way to proceed.
I would think that if a beneficary dies before the person who wrote the will, it will be up to the court to determine next of kin. So then your will gets held up in Probate. I would just remove her from ur will. It was nice to think of her though.😊
The easiest way to ensure gifts are distributed how you want is to make a will that names primary beneficiaries and that names alternative beneficiaries in case a beneficiary dies before you. Eg, you leave $100 to Mary but if Mary dies before you, you leave that $100 to Fred.