Anti-Lapse Statute: Definition and How It Works in California

By Eric Ridley, attorney, Ridley Law. Updated September 2026.

California’s anti-lapse statute saves a gift to a predeceased beneficiary’s descendants when the beneficiary was a close relative of the person who made the will or trust, instead of letting the gift lapse.

How it works in California

Without this rule, a gift to someone who dies before the person who made the will or trust simply fails, and the property falls back into the residue or passes by intestacy. Prob. Code, § 21110 changes that outcome for a specific group: kindred of the person who made the document, or kindred of that person’s spouse, current, surviving, or former. If a beneficiary in that group dies first and leaves descendants, the gift passes to those descendants by right of representation instead of lapsing.

The statute doesn’t reach everyone. A gift to a spouse who dies first isn’t saved by anti-lapse, and neither is a gift to a friend, a business partner, or anyone else outside the defined relationship. Those gifts still lapse under the general rule unless the document itself names a backup beneficiary.

Why it matters

For example, a trust leaves a specific bequest to a sibling, and the sibling dies before the settlor, survived by two adult children. Anti-lapse steps in and divides that gift between the sibling’s children rather than letting it fall into the residue meant for someone else entirely.

Common mistakes

People assume any predeceased beneficiary’s share automatically goes to that person’s children; it only does if the beneficiary fits the statute’s relationship categories. Drafters also sometimes forget that a spouse’s gift isn’t protected by anti-lapse, so a will or trust that wants a deceased spouse’s share to pass to stepchildren or others has to say so directly instead of relying on this default.

Related terms

• Ademption: a different reason a gift can fail, the property itself disappearing rather than the beneficiary dying first.
• Elective Share: a surviving spouse’s claim some states allow against the estate; California has no elective share.
• Lapse (Lapsed Gift): the general rule anti-lapse is an exception to.

Part of the California estate planning glossary.