How a deceased person's property actually reaches its beneficiaries — what falls into the distributable estate, why gifts fail, and the rules that decide who ultimately takes what.
A will is only the starting point: between death and final distribution, property may bypass the estate entirely, gifts may fail, and personal representatives may face claims if they pay out the wrong person. This chapter begins with the distributable estate and the assets that pass outside it, then works through the types of legacy and the ways they fail through lapse and ademption, before turning to survivorship clauses, the forfeiture rule, the statutory anti-lapse exception and the effect of divorce. It then covers conditional gifts, the statutory order for paying debts and the abatement of legacies when funds run short, followed by the protections available to personal representatives — statutory advertisements, the six-month window for Inheritance Act claims and Benjamin orders. Finally, it examines how beneficiaries can reshape distribution through disclaimers and deeds of variation, the treatment of bankrupt and minor beneficiaries, and the mechanics of transferring assets, appropriation, and entitlement to income and interest during administration.
