Your post is a little confusing so I'll try to answer to the best of my knowledge. I'm not an attorney, but I know a little about probate law, and in Texas when a person dies intestate (without a will) the proceeds are split equally amongst the remaining heirs. Or if the deceased died without updating his will to make his benefactor (your client in this case) his sole heir, then it is determined that the remaining heirs get equal shares. From what you are saying, in this case, both of the children, your client and her brother Todd, would inherit 50-50. But since Todd predeceased his father, than his heir(s) would receive his 50% portion of the inheritance. Did the father not have a living wife that would have received her 50%?

I would suggest that she (your client), if she has not already done so, consult with an attorney. It would appear that the inheritance that was bequested to the son of Todd's inheritance should be placed in a trust fund. However, who has control of the trust fund is another question, i.e. possibly his aunt?! She needs to see if she can appeal to gain control of the child's inheritance. Really, I would spend the $$ to have an attorney check it out.

BTW, yes, we have our wills done with stipulations attached.

Father was a widower.

Aunt did consult an attorney;
court never declared Todd's child's mother unfit or incompetent, so the likelihood of the aunt getting control of the child's inheritance is slim;
aunt decided not to enrage her nephew's mother lest she never get to see nephew ever again.

She's making the best of a bad situation, but it could have been a non-issue had her dad made a will.

Here's a good reason to talk to your parents about their will and make sure that it's specific. A friend of mine lost both parents just a few months apart. Both wills left everything to the surviving spouse or equal parts to the surviving children. There were 4 kids. After the funeral the four kids, all adults, met at the parents house and agreed to meet next morning and begin dividing up the estate. The girls were from out of town and both brothers lived nearby. My friend and her sister went to their hotel and stayed there the night. Next morning they went to the house to meet their brothers. Nearly everything in the house of any worth had been removed during the night. The mom's jewelry, antiques, porcelains, father's coin collection, gun collection, and all power tools.

The brothers claimed that the house must have been robbed and accused the two sisters. The sisters knew they hadn't done it and accused the brothers. The police were summoned, took a report and advised the kids to quit fighting and get on with it. They couldn't stop fighting and called the police again. They finally had to hire a lawyer to settle the estate and he told them his fee would be 25% of all proceeds of the estate sale. Until the sale, to prevent any more pilfering the house and all property was locked up and none of them could touch it.

My friend wanted her mother's heirloom china and the family rocker. Her sister wanted her mothers silver and crystal and another set of dishware. The lawyer, once involved told them that the only way they could have those things was if they bid on them in the estate auction. Neither of the girls could afford to outbid the strangers who showed up for the sale and they lost their family treasures.

The last item to be sold was a campground their parents had owned. It was valued at 2.1M by a local realtor. But it took nearly a year to sell it, it finally sold for only half of the estimated value, and the lawyer took his 25% off the top of that. Then he assessed his fees for a year's worth of legal services against the total estate and my friend came out with only about $4500.

When I told my folks about what had happened to my friend, they both revised their wills. Both added a codicil that specified which items that were to go to each of us, since there are six kids in my family.

Before my dad passed away in 2005 he tried to sell our beach cottage in Gilcrist. It had been owned by his dad, and then by Daddy and is sisters jointly. Daddy and his sisters fought over the cottage and the bills and the condition each of the others left it in after using it. Daddy finally bought it from his sisters so there was no more disagreement. Both of his sisters and their families used it after that, but there was no fighting any more.

So along comes me and two of my brothers and we don't want to sell it out of the family, we want to co-own the beach cottage. But Daddy didn't want us to because he said we'd fight over it. Oh, no, we were sure we could get along just fine so he finally signed it over to us. And that's when it all went to he!! in a handbasket. I wanted it clean, they liked it dirty. I moved the chairs, they moved them back. I paid all the bills, no disagreement there, and no offer to chip in a share either.

After 3 tumultuous years along comes Hurricane Ike and resolved the issue for us. Daddy was right, we fought like cats and dogs, and I'm not so sure he didn't guide the path of that hurricane from beyond the grave just to shut us up. So the moral of that story is that joint ownership with a sibling isn't a good idea, so don't put that in a will either. Cheryl