Residuary Estate

Your residuary estate is the bulk of your estate after payment of any liabilities, and fixed cash legacies. Your will does not need to list assets, and it can simply refer to either ‘the whole of my estate’ or ‘the rest of my estate’ (if you have left cash legacies). Check out various guides on residuary estate, and if you can not find what you are looking for – do reach out to expert wills and probate solicitors.

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Residuary Estate FAQs

You will need to include beneficiaries in your will as well executors and perhaps trustees and guardians. Your beneficiaries can either be left a fixed sum of money (a ‘legacy’) or all or a share of your estate (the ‘residue’).

The residuary beneficiary or residuary beneficiaries receive the residue of an estate.

Residuary estate is the balance of an estate after tax, liabilities and any specific personal items or cash gifts (legacies) have been paid.

The residue of an estate is valued for probate. The debts, tax and liabilities are paid from the residue before it is distributed as per the will. If there is no will, the rules of intestacy are followed.

‘Estate’ is the collective term for anything that a person owned when they die.

The residue of an estate is distributed as per the will. If there is no will, it is distributed following the rules of intestacy.

The residuary beneficiaries in your will will receive the residue. If you don’t have a will the residue will be distributed following the rules of intestacy.

If a residuary beneficiary dies during the administration of an estate, their own estate will still receive the money due (and pass via the terms of their own will). If they die before the deceased, any gift usually lapses and will be added proportionally to the other residually beneficiaries to the original will.

A residuary beneficiary receives the estate or a share of the estate after all liabilities, debts and taxes are paid. A beneficiary is a general term of someone who receives money or an item from the estate.

The residuary estate is left up of everything else that hasn’t already been left to a beneficiary (for example personal items, fixed cash gift/ legacy.

The purpose of a residuary clause is to leave money to beneficiaries that has not already been left to beneficiaries either through a fixed cash gift (a legacy) or in a personal item to beneficiaries.

You do need a residuary clause in a will as you cannot effectively list out every asset to leave beneficiaries.

A residuary bequest means money that is left after fixed cash gifts have been made and debts, liabilities and tax have been made. A residuary beneficiary receives a residuary bequest.

This is a beneficiary who is set to receive a share or the whole of the residuary estate.

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