Readers Forum: Will trust

I act for a trust set up by the will of someone who died in 2009 with life interest to their widow and the remainder to Tom Dick and Harriet. The widow has died recently. It now turns out that Tom died in 2013 and Dick followed in 2015 while Harriet is still alive.

From my internet research (tinyurl.com/y4xt38cw) it appears that Tom and Dick are still entitled to their shares if the trust deed did not impose any conditions. This would mean that their shares are added to the remainders of their estates and devolve according to their wills (rather than going ‘per stirpes’ to their surviving issue).

Do Taxation readers agree that this is correct and if so how does it work for inheritance tax? If Tom and Dick left estates above the threshold and the remainder was left to chargeable...