Can a beneficiary claim the inheritance of a deceased sibling?

Did your ex husband remarried or have any children if so it goes to his wife first or children if not.
Only if no other family can his sister claim.

No, in principle the sister cannot claim her deceased brother’s share but the situation depends entirely on how the will was written as to whether the brother’s share forms part of your ex’s residuary estate (anything he owned which was not specifically left to a named person) if a recipient of the residuary estate was named, or whether he is partially intestate which may leave the sister entitled to claim. I know this is as clear as mud. The short answer is that a solicitor has to be consulted as all depends on how the will was written.

GSM has the right idea in suggesting a solicitor is needed to solve this conundrum, but I would have thought that the brother’s share would have passed to his descendants if he has any.

Not if he pre-deceased the person who made the will.

Thank you for your helpful responses. I knew I would get sound advice here.

His brother was unmarried and had no children that we are aware of. Each of his siblings was to receive £10.000 and the rest of his estate was to be divided equally between my daughter and her step-sister, his daughter born in another relationship. They were not married.

Generally, if a beneficiary dies before the deceased, they will not inherit anything from the deceased’s Estate. Whatever they were due to receive will fall back into the deceased’s Estate. However, the deceased may make provision in their Will for the gift to be redirected in those circumstances stating that if the original beneficiary dies before them then alternative beneficiaries will receive the gift instead.

Good point. I will check that Keeleklogger.

Ah. Your daughter and her step-sister will take the brother’s share.

That's what I thought Germanshepherdsmum. Thank you for your input.

I had an uncle who died intestate and I received my mother’s share of his estate, she had died some years before him. My mother had worked for a solicitor and he handled it pro bono.

Intestacy is entirely different.

There was a very detailed will, an additional detailed letter, and funeral plan in place. He just failed to change the wording of the will after his younger brother died. He was already very poorly when his brother died suddenly. That hit him hard and he was by that time unable to cope with the detail of daily life like paying bills etc. That's when I went back to helping with his care because our only child lives overseas.

Thank you for your responses. They have helped to get things in perspective.