How Antilapse Works
Consider a common scenario. A parent leaves a share of their estate to a child, but that child dies before the testator. Without anti lapse statutes, the gift would simply fail. The property would fall into the residue of the estate or pass by intestacy. Arizona's antilapse rule prevents that outcome for qualifying family members.
If a devisee fails to survive the testator and is a grandparent, a descendant of a grandparent or a stepchild of either the testator or the donor of a power of appointment exercised by the testator's will, the following apply: 1. Except as provided in paragraph 3 of this subsection, if the devise is not in the form of a class gift and the deceased devisee leaves surviving descendants, a substitute gift is created in the devisee's surviving descendants and they take, by representation, the property to which the devisee would have been entitled if the devisee had survived the testator.
A.R.S. § 14-2603(A)(1)In plain terms, if a qualifying beneficiary dies before the testator, the deceased beneficiary's descendants receive the share instead. The gift stays in that branch of the family. The beneficiary's children or grandchildren step into the original beneficiary's place.
When the Antilapse Rule Does Not Apply
This rule has important limits. It only applies to beneficiaries who are related to the person who wrote the will in specific ways: grandparents, descendants of grandparents (parents, siblings, nieces, nephews, cousins), or stepchildren. A gift to an unrelated friend would not trigger antilapse protection. Under various state laws, the scope of these protections differs.
Words of survivorship, such as in a devise to an individual "if he survives me", or in a devise to "my surviving children", are, in the absence of clear and convincing evidence to the contrary, a sufficient indication of an intent contrary to the application of this section.
A.R.S. § 14-2603(C)The rule can also be overridden by the language in the will itself. If the will names alternate beneficiaries, the alternate gift takes priority over antilapse. Survivorship language such as "if he survives me" is treated as evidence that the person did not want antilapse to apply. Without such language, lapsed gifts automatically redirect to the deceased beneficiary's descendants.