Fractional Entitlement: Not All Beneficiaries Are Created Equally

I never thought I’d post content that called upon my Maths GCSE qualification, but here we are.

But when talking about who is entitled to what from an intestate estate where there are more than a couple of beneficiaries, the calculator is often required to get things 100% correct. It’s not always straightforward. You might have seen that a law firm was fined over ￡100,000 earlier this year by the Solicitors Regulation Authority for an error relating to the interpretation of the rules of intestacy.

The fact of the matter is, not all beneficiaries are entitled to the same share. This isn’t like splitting the dinner bill with friends on a weekend evening at the local Italian. There is no negotiation to be had.

Intestate Estate

In an intestacy, the estate must be distributed as per the rules of intestacy and that means that some beneficiaries may well get more than others. To put it bluntly: the greater the number of entitled relatives, the smaller the slice of the pie.

There can be some huge variances in what share some beneficiaries are entitled to… We recently had a case where there were well over one hundred beneficiaries, with the smallest share being a minuscule 1/3248th!

Fractional entitlement is best demonstrated visually, and thankfully one of the team here was able to produce a simplified tree.

This is a simplified four-stem tree showing how more relatives dilute the shares. A total of ten beneficiaries in total, going down as far as first cousins twice removed, quite a typical distribution.

But let us keep it simple here. Using the example in this tree, firstly forget any monetary values, as we are dealing with fractions. You’ll find the deceased on the far left of the tree.

To confirm, the deceased had no living:

·???????? Spouse

·???????? Children

·???????? Siblings

?

Or a valid will (this is an intestate estate, remember).

Full Blood Trumps Half Blood

The deceased did though have full-blood aunts and uncles – two aunts and two uncles. This is important as it has an impact on everything that follows. It turned out that the deceased had eight cousins. Does that mean that the estate should be split into eight equal parts? No, absolutely not.

The estate must be split equally between the four stems in total, but not individually. So, as cousin A (child of the first Aunt) had no siblings, they would be entitled to the full quarter. However, Cousins B and C – the issue of the first uncle – would see their entitlement split between them, so 1/8th each.

But what of cousins D, E, and F, the offspring of the second Aunt? Their share of the quarter of the estate would need to be split three ways, so 1/12th each.

Lastly, cousins G & H, children of the last uncle. Their share is 1/8th each (given that there are two of them) however this is somewhat complicated by the fact that cousin G pre-deceased the estate.

As we know from the rules of intestacy, where a beneficiary has passed away, their children take their place in terms of entitlement, and that’s what happens here. Cousin G had two children, thus first cousins once removed to the deceased, who’d be entitled to receive 1/16th. The share of the other 1/16th split, due to their sibling would also need to be passed on as they had pre-deceased the estate too.

Their offspring (as first cousins twice removed) would inherit a share of 1/32.

Clear as mud?

It’s probably easier to display it as a “league table” and here's one I prepared earlier:

Round Up

Given that intestacy cases don't tend to come along that regularly, this type of scenario where there are multiple beneficiaries has the potential to cause confusion, even among experienced practitioners. For probate genealogists of course, this is all part of the day job.

We're always glad to offer guidance on such cases and provide peace of mind, enabling estates to be distributed with confidence.

As a final point, it's also worth mentioning that some of the case management systems use percentages as opposed to fractions to calculate which can add a further layer of confusion. We’re old school – we keep it as fractions.

Here is a handy guide to the rules of intestacy to finish. Do get in contact if you have any queries.

#Inheritance #Intestacy #ProbateGenealogy