What are stirpes?

[Santo Gold]

I am looking at a beneficiary designation form and it indicates for contigent beneficiary "Children per stirpes". Is this a latin word? Does anyone know what it means and how it affects their contigent beneficary designation?

[R. Butler]

If I remember correctly per stirpes means that if the beney is deceased, that beney's descendants will split the beney's inheritance. The alternative is per capita which means the beney has to be alive to inherit.

[FundeK]

I do believe it means in equal amounts. So, the children would each get equal amounts of the account balance.

[Appleby]

FundeK, I think R. Butler is right. I am not sure if you are agreeing with him/her or not .

For instance if the children, Tom , Dick and Harry are the beneficiaries Per Stirpes…and Tom should predeceased the IRA owner, then Tom’s share that he would have inherited , had he not predecease the IRA owner, would go to Tom’s heirs.

[QDROphile]

Either get legal advice on how to interpret or don't accept the designation. It can be written in English.

[Appleby]

...Or ask if you can provide your customized beneficiary designation…or choose options that you are comfortable with…Usually, designations that include “ children Per Stirpes” as an option, includes other simpler options. The custodian, by including that option, is probably just trying to offer its customers flexibility.

During the past few years, most of the IRA ‘default’ beneficiary provisions include ‘children Per Stirpes’ as a default designation, if the IRA owner is not survived by a spouse. As you know, the default option applies only if the IRA owner fails to designate a beneficiary, is not survived by the designated beneficiary , or if the designated beneficiary cannot be located and such

[R. Butler]

Now that I've thought about it a little longer I see that Funded K is right & really my post was wrong.

Per stirpes means equal shares. So beneys are B,C&D per stirpes. They each get a 1/3. If B dies, his descendants split his 1/3 share.

Per capita (which was not asked about, but I did mention in my post as a point of comparison) is where I was wrong. Per capita means per head. So if dies B dies with descendants, B's descendants share equal shares with C&D.

Sorry for the error.

[mbozek]

You need to get a opinion of the meaning of per stirpes in the state where the decedent lived. In most states it means that all members of a class will receive an equal share of the beneficary's interest in a decedent's estate. E.g., if the son who has 2 children was to receve a share of his father's IRA and the son predeceases the father, each child recieves 1/2 of the son's share in the IRA. There may be other issues such as whether adopted children are included for per stirpes. If there is any uncertainty about who is to receive the interest the executor will have to bring the matter to the local probate court.

[Appleby]

Now that I've thought about it a little longer I see that Funded K is right & really my post was wrong.

Per stirpes means equal shares. So beneys are B,C&D per stirpes. They each get a 1/3. If B dies, his descendants split his 1/3 share.

Per capita (which was not asked about, but I did mention in my post as a point of comparison) is where I was wrong. Per capita means per head. So if dies B dies with descendants, B's descendants share equal shares with C&D.

Sorry for the error.

R. Butler,

It depends on the angle from which you look at it. Generally, Per Stirpes does not mean the original beneficiaries receive equal shares. For instance, using your example, where beneficiaries are B,C&D Per Stirpes- B, C & D would get the share allocated to them by the IRA owner. For instance, the IRA owner could designate that B gets 50 percent, C gets 25 percent and D gets 25 percent ( All Per Stirpes). The equal shares part comes into play for the beneficiaries of B, C and D. For instances, if B predeceases the IRA owner, and B has three children, then B’s share is split equally among B’s children

[Bird]

I agree with the descriptions posted earlier.

If it helps, think of "per stirpes" as "per branch" (of the family tree). (Although I don't know if that is a literal translation.) So if one child predeceases the participant, and the child has children, benefits still flow to that branch.

[R. Butler]

Now that I've thought about it a little longer I see that Funded K is right & really my post was wrong. 

Per stirpes means equal shares.  So beneys are B,C&D per stirpes.  They each get a 1/3.  If B dies, his descendants split his 1/3 share.

Per capita (which was not asked about, but I did mention in my post as a point of comparison) is where I was wrong.  Per capita means per head.  So if dies B dies with descendants, B's descendants share equal shares with C&D.

Sorry for the error.

R. Butler,

It depends on the angle from which you look at it. Generally, Per Stirpes does not mean the original beneficiaries receive equal shares. For instance, using your example, where beneficiaries are B,C&D Per Stirpes- B, C & D would get the share allocated to them by the IRA owner. For instance, the IRA owner could designate that B gets 50 percent, C gets 25 percent and D gets 25 percent ( All Per Stirpes). The equal shares part comes into play for the beneficiaries of B, C and D. For instances, if B predeceases the IRA owner, and B has three children, then B’s share is split equally among B’s children

You are probably correct. This is topic I probably should have just stayed away from. I remembered the terms vaguely from law school & just got a little to cocky.

[Santo Gold]

Thank you for the great responses. More complicated than I expected but I think I got it now.

[FundeK]

I like Bird's explanation!

[Appleby]

Me too.

When I build my website, I made use it in my dictionary, if Bird doesn’t copyright it by then

[Guest David Lacy]

"per stirpes" is Latin for something like "by the roots" or "by the branches". It is usually to differentiate from a "per capita" distribution. In probate, say you have only two children, but both are deceased. Child A left eight children (your grandchildren) and Child B left two children (your grandchildren). A "per capita" distribution would mean that you see ten grandkids, so each gets a tenth. A "per stirpes" distribution would mean that the eight children of A would split A's portion getting 1/16 each and the two children of B would split B's portion getting 1/4th each. Neither method is inherently better than the other. The "per stirpes" better approximates what happens if the children had lived, thus preventing wide swings in benefits caused by the death of the child before or after the parent. But all ten are grandkids, so why not just give all the same