What Is a Beneficiary?

Wills usually contain several categories of gift. A specific gift leaves a named item, such as jewellery or a car, to a particular person. A pecuniary legacy leaves a fixed sum of money. A residuary gift leaves a share, or all, of whatever is left once debts, tax, expenses and other gifts have been paid.

A beneficiary might receive one type of gift or several. For example, a will might leave a piece of furniture and a cash sum to one person, and the residue of the estate to another, such as a spouse or children in equal shares.

Beneficiaries do not automatically see the whole will, but residuary beneficiaries are generally entitled to see the estate accounts once the administration is complete, so they can check how the estate was managed. Specific and pecuniary beneficiaries are usually told what they are due to receive and roughly when to expect it.

Beneficiaries are entitled to be treated fairly and to have the estate administered within a reasonable time, though what counts as reasonable depends on the complexity of the assets involved.

A beneficiary can also be named as executor, and this is very common, for instance when a spouse inherits everything and also administers the estate. What a beneficiary generally cannot do is witness the will they benefit from, since under the Wills Act 1837 a gift to a witness, or to the spouse or civil partner of a witness, is void.

This means that when a will is signed, it is important that none of the witnesses are people who stand to inherit under it, to avoid accidentally losing a gift that was otherwise validly intended.

Imagine an estate worth 300,000 pounds. The will leaves a piece of jewellery to a niece, a pecuniary legacy of 5,000 pounds to a friend, and the residue split equally between two children. After debts, funeral costs and the legacy are paid, if 270,000 pounds remains, each child receives 135,000 pounds as residuary beneficiaries, while the niece receives the jewellery and the friend receives 5,000 pounds, regardless of how the residue eventually divides.

This example shows why residuary beneficiaries usually take the greatest interest in how an estate is valued and administered, since their share depends directly on what is left once everything else has been paid, whereas a specific or pecuniary beneficiary's gift is fixed.

Beneficiaries sometimes assume they are entitled to see the whole will immediately after a death, when in fact only executors and, once probate is granted, anyone who obtains a copy from the Probate Registry can see it in full. Residuary beneficiaries are entitled to estate accounts, but specific and pecuniary beneficiaries are usually only told what they are due to receive.

Another common misunderstanding is expecting a fixed timetable. Estate administration can reasonably take many months, particularly if a property must be sold or inheritance tax needs to be agreed with HM Revenue and Customs, so beneficiaries should expect some delay rather than assuming anything has gone wrong.