What doctrine prevents lapse of a gift when a beneficiary dies before the testator, allowing issue to take?

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Multiple Choice

What doctrine prevents lapse of a gift when a beneficiary dies before the testator, allowing issue to take?

The concept being tested is the anti-lapse doctrine. Normally, if a named beneficiary dies before the testator, the gift lapses and fails. The anti-lapse rule changes that outcome: if the predeceased beneficiary left descendants who survive the testator and the beneficiary is within the class covered by the statute, those descendants take the gift in place of the beneficiary, typically by representation (per stirpes). This preserves the transfer to the beneficiary’s lineal descendants rather than letting the gift lapse. If there are no such descendants, or the statute doesn’t apply to the situation, the gift lapses as usual. Other doctrines listed—abatement concerns how gifts are reduced when the estate isn’t large enough to satisfy all bequests; ademption by extinction happens when the specific property is no longer in the estate; undue influence deals with invalidating a will due to improper pressure. These address different issues and don’t govern substitutions for a deceased beneficiary under the anti-lapse rule.

The concept being tested is the anti-lapse doctrine. Normally, if a named beneficiary dies before the testator, the gift lapses and fails. The anti-lapse rule changes that outcome: if the predeceased beneficiary left descendants who survive the testator and the beneficiary is within the class covered by the statute, those descendants take the gift in place of the beneficiary, typically by representation (per stirpes). This preserves the transfer to the beneficiary’s lineal descendants rather than letting the gift lapse.

If there are no such descendants, or the statute doesn’t apply to the situation, the gift lapses as usual. Other doctrines listed—abatement concerns how gifts are reduced when the estate isn’t large enough to satisfy all bequests; ademption by extinction happens when the specific property is no longer in the estate; undue influence deals with invalidating a will due to improper pressure. These address different issues and don’t govern substitutions for a deceased beneficiary under the anti-lapse rule.

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