Video Summary
What is better is per stirpes or per capita? Well, I don’t know that either one of them is better than the other. You use them to determine what your intent is. If you want the devised to go to your child, or if that child dies before you want it to go to their children or your grandchildren of that child, then you would use the word per stirpes or per stirps. If on the other hand, if you have, let’s say, three children and you want your estate to go to the survivor so that if one of your children dies before you want your entire estate to go to the other two, you would want to use the word per capita in your estate plan. So I’ll leave everything to my three children, and you would name them in equal shares per capita. So per capita, you count the number of heads that are alive at the time of your death to determine who receives it. On the other hand, if it’s per stirpes, you determine if any of the children have died before you and or your executor does because you are deceased and determine whether who you determine their children or their heirs to distribute their share to those grandchildren or their heirs. If you have any questions about it, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.