Michigan Laws 700.2709 – Substitute gift
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If a beneficiary fails to survive the decedent and is a grandparent, a grandparent’s descendant, or the decedent’s stepchild, the following apply:
(a) Except as provided in subdivision (d), if the beneficiary designation is not in the form of a class gift and the deceased beneficiary leaves surviving descendants, a substitute gift is created in the beneficiary’s surviving descendants. They take by representation the property to which the beneficiary would have been entitled had the beneficiary survived the decedent.
Terms Used In Michigan Laws 700.2709
- Application: means a written request to the probate register for an order of informal probate or informal appointment under part 3 of article III. See Michigan Laws 700.1103
- Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. Source: OCC
- Beneficiary: includes , but is not limited to, the following:
(i) In relation to a trust, a person that is a trust beneficiary as defined in section 7103. See Michigan Laws 700.1103Beneficiary designation: means the naming in a governing instrument of a beneficiary of an insurance or annuity policy, of an account with POD designation, of a security registered in beneficiary form (TOD), of a pension, profit-sharing, retirement, or similar benefit plan, or of another nonprobate transfer at death. See Michigan Laws 700.1103 Decedent: A deceased person. Descendant: means , in relation to an individual, all of his or her descendants of all generations, with the relationship of parent and child at each generation being determined by the definitions of child and parent contained in this act. See Michigan Laws 700.1103 Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other. Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value. Governing instrument: means a deed; will; trust; funeral representative designation; insurance or annuity policy; account with POD designation; security registered in beneficiary form (TOD); pension, profit-sharing, retirement, or similar benefit plan; instrument creating or exercising a power of appointment or a power of attorney; or dispositive, appointive, or nominative instrument of any similar type. See Michigan Laws 700.1104 Property: means anything that may be the subject of ownership, and includes both real and personal property or an interest in real or personal property. See Michigan Laws 700.1106 Survive: means that an individual neither predeceases an event, including the death of another individual, nor is considered to predecease an event under section 2104 or 2702. See Michigan Laws 700.1107
(b) Except as provided in subdivision (d), if the beneficiary designation is in the form of a class gift, other than a beneficiary designation to “issue”, “descendants”, “heirs of the body”, “heirs”, “next of kin”, “relatives”, or “family” or a class described by language of similar import, a substitute gift is created in the surviving descendants of each deceased beneficiary. The property to which the beneficiaries would have been entitled had all of them survived the decedent passes to the surviving beneficiaries and the surviving descendants of the deceased beneficiaries. Each surviving beneficiary takes the share to which he or she would have been entitled had the deceased beneficiaries survived the decedent. Each deceased beneficiary’s surviving descendants who are substituted for the deceased beneficiary take by representation the share to which the deceased beneficiary would have been entitled had the deceased beneficiary survived the decedent. For the purposes of this subdivision, “deceased beneficiary” means a class member who failed to survive the decedent and left 1 or more surviving descendants.
(c) For the purposes of section 2701, words of survivorship, such as in a beneficiary designation to an individual “if he survives me” or in a beneficiary designation to “my surviving children”, are not, in the absence of additional evidence, a sufficient indication of an intent contrary to the application of this section.
(d) If a governing instrument creates an alternative beneficiary designation with respect to a beneficiary designation for which a substitute gift is created by subdivision (a) or (b), the substitute gift is superseded by the alternative beneficiary designation only if an expressly designated beneficiary of the alternative beneficiary designation is entitled to take.