Also known as: by rights of representation · right of representation · rights of representation · per stirpes
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A method of distributing property among descendants under which the property is divided into as many equal shares as there are surviving children of the designated ancestor and deceased children who left surviving descendants. Each surviving child receives one share. The share of each deceased child is subdivided in the same manner among that child's surviving descendants at each succeeding generation until the property is fully allocated.
Bristol Steel's founder leaves his estate to his issue by right of representation. His daughter Brianna Burke survives him. His son predeceases him but is survived by two children. The estate is divided into two shares. Brianna receives one share outright. The two grandchildren divide the second share equally.
A trust provides income to the settlor's grandchildren for life with the corpus to their issue by right of representation. One grandchild dies survived by two children. Those two children succeed to their parent's income share. The remaining grandchildren continue to receive their original shares.
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Distribution by right of representation begins the division at the children of the designated ancestor and subdivides each deceased child's share among that child's descendants. Per capita at each generation first identifies the nearest generation with survivors and divides shares equally among living members and deceased members who left surviving descendants before recombining and subdividing remaining shares at the next generation.
Supporting sources
No. An individual who is deceased and left no surviving descendant is disregarded when counting shares under the representation rule.
Supporting sources
Coupling the term children with a direction for representational distribution creates an internal inconsistency. The phrase is construed to mean issue so that the representational scheme can operate by substituting descendants for any deceased child.
Supporting sources
…living from time to time (as joint tenants with rights of survivorship) or whether the issue of any deceased grandchild succeeds by right of representation to his income interest. The latter result better conforms with the testator’s intentions. The testator provided that the trust should terminate twenty-one years after the death of his last…