It may slip your mind to name a contingency beneficiary if your primary beneficiary, most unfortunately, passes away before you and prior to your Last Will and Testament document being finally executed. Well, you may rest a little easier knowing that your gifted property and assets may remain protected by New York’s anti-lapse law. For this, please follow along to find out when New York’s anti-lapse law might apply to your estate plan and how a proficient Putnam County will attorney at the Law Offices of Andres D. Gil, PLLC, can help you prepare for any possible scenario.
How might New York’s anti-lapse law apply to my estate?
Simply put, New York’s anti-lapse law aims to protect your gifted property and assets from disappearing if your beneficiary predeceases you, and if you never assigned a contingency beneficiary. Instead, these specified gifts may go to your beneficiary’s descendants. This is so long as certain conditions are met, which read as follows:
- Your deceased beneficiary must be considered your close relative (i.e., your sibling, your child, etc).
- Your deceased beneficiary must have surviving descendants (i.e., their children, their grandchildren, etc).
- Your deceased beneficiary’s surviving descendants must be able and willing to accept these specified gifts.
What happens if the anti-lapse law is not relevant to my plan?
As you likely assume from what has already been explained, New York’s anti-lapse law does not apply if your named beneficiary was a distant relative or simply a close friend with no familial relation to you. In this case, the gifts you left behind for your deceased beneficiary may go to your residuary beneficiary. This is the individual you may have appointed to inherit the leftover property and assets you forgot or failed to provide directions for within your Last Will and Testament document.
However, if you did not include a residuary clause within your will document, the New York Surrogate’s Court may have no choice but to reference the state’s intestate succession laws. With this, the lapsed gift may be inherited by the surviving spouse first, and if not, then the surviving children, parents, siblings, or other close relatives (i.e., grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins). Ultimately, if you do not have any of these relatives, or if none of these relatives step forward, the lapsed gift may become the property of New York State.
It is worth mentioning that gifts transferred into a trust are always handled differently than those within a will. And so, anti-lapse laws may not apply if the beneficiary of your trust predeceases you. For this, we advise you to speak with your trust attorney. To conclude, this matter may obviously be important to you, and you may want the best possible outcome. So please, do not start planning without a talented estate planning attorney in Putnam County in your corner. The team at the Law Office of Andres D. Gil, PLLC is here at your command.
