Dying intestate

[Bike_Al]

In the UK if one of three brothers dies intestate with no closer relatives than his brothers they would inherit his estate.
If one of the surviving brothers then dies before the estate is settled, but this brother has a wife, does she inherit her late husbands share of the first brothers estate or does all the first brothers estate revert to the surviving brother?

[Peter Pedant]

erm, someone is gonna put up the intestacy rules,

BUT the dead brother's children get the dead brothers share, if any

relatives by marriage do not inherit - - I think

[dot.hawkes]

If you die intestate, i.e. without having made a will, the after tax and expenses residue of the estate is divided equally between the surviving relatives in most cases i believe.

Unless there was a will giving provision for the brothers inheritence to pass to his wife it may be unlikely, often the children of the second brother would be the beneficiaries but their mother would be the trustee for their inheritance.

Probate and letters of administration are complex areas.

[themas]

The first to die is A. His estate is then to be shared between his brothers, B & C. B then dies - after A, but before A's estate is settled. I do not think this alters the way in which A's estate is distributed - in other words, I think the rules come into play when A died, not when his estate was settled. If this is so, then B's share would be dealt with under B's Will (if he had one) or under intestacy rules (in which case it would all go to his wife unless the complex rules about amounts and limits come into play).