Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Virginia
If an heir to an estate dies before they receive their share, does their share go to their children and their surviving spouse if the spouse is not the children's father and he is incarcerated for life?
1 Answer from Attorneys
It's a little difficult to sort out the facts in your question, but I'll take a shot at what I think is the question:
If a decedent dies, and the will or the scheme of inheritance by the law of the state of the decedent's death leaves a share to a person, and then that person dies before receiving the share, the share of that deceased heir would go to that deceased heir's estate, to be disposed of by that person's will or the scheme of inheritance by the law of the state of that deceased heir's death. If the deceased heir did not leave a will, and there was a wife and there were kids of that deceased heir who were not kids of the deceased heir's then wife, under the Virginia law, the deceased heir's wife would receive one third of the deceased heir's estate and two thirds of the deceased heir's estate would go to the deceased heir's children.