# Lapse: Definition and How It Works in California

> A lapse happens when a beneficiary named in a will or trust dies before the person who made it, so the gift fails.

Source: https://ridleylawoffices.com/estate-planning-glossary-california/lapse/

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

A **lapse** happens when a beneficiary named in a will or trust dies before the person who made it, so the gift fails unless California’s anti-lapse statute redirects it to the beneficiary’s descendants.

## How it works in California

California law requires a beneficiary to survive the person who made the gift. Under Prob. Code, § 21109, a transferee who does not survive the transferor, or does not survive until any later date the will or trust requires, does not take under that instrument. If a beneficiary dies first, the gift lapses, meaning it fails as written.

California softens that rule for close relatives. Under the state’s anti-lapse statute, Prob. Code, § 21110, if the deceased beneficiary was kindred of the transferor or of the transferor’s spouse, that person’s share passes instead to their own descendants rather than lapsing outright. A beneficiary who was never related to the maker by blood or marriage doesn’t get this protection. If that person dies first, the gift lapses and falls into the residue or passes by intestate succession.

## Why it matters

A lapse can send an asset somewhere the person who wrote the will or trust never intended. For example, a will leaves a specific bequest to a close friend, and the friend dies two years before the person who wrote the will does. Because the friend isn’t a relative, the anti-lapse statute doesn’t apply, and the gift lapses into the residue of the estate instead of going to the friend’s children.

## Common mistakes

Assuming the anti-lapse statute rescues every failed gift. It only reaches kindred of the maker or the maker’s spouse. Leaving a will or trust unchanged for years without checking whether a named beneficiary has died, which is what lets a lapse problem surface at the worst time.

## Related terms

- [Abatement](https://ridleylawoffices.com/estate-planning-glossary-california/abatement/): the order in which gifts get reduced when an estate doesn’t have enough to pay them all, a separate problem from a lapsed gift.
- [Ademption](https://ridleylawoffices.com/estate-planning-glossary-california/ademption/): what happens when the specific property left in a gift no longer exists at death, rather than the beneficiary.
- [Anti-lapse statute](https://ridleylawoffices.com/estate-planning-glossary-california/anti-lapse-statute/): the California law that can save a lapsed gift to a relative by redirecting it to that relative’s descendants.
- [Residuary Estate](https://ridleylawoffices.com/estate-planning-glossary-california/residuary-estate/): what is left after debts, expenses, and specific and general gifts are paid.

Part of the [California estate planning glossary](https://ridleylawoffices.com/estate-planning-glossary-california/).