Anything that’s left over after all taxes and debts of the estate have been paid is what is known as a residuary estate.
A residuary estate can be more common than you think. If, for example, an estate holder’s list of beneficiaries is quite small—as in, they only have a spouse and one child, or only a few select family members—then they may want to designate some assets as gifts to specific beneficiaries and then leave the bulk of their estate to their spouse or children.
The spouse or children would receive the residuary estate.A residuary estate is not always intentionally created. Sometimes, a will isn’t updated by the time of the estate holder’s death and fails to include recent developments, such as real estate purchases or other new assets.
Sometimes, a residuary estate can simply occur from plain forgetfulness or inattentiveness: An estate holder simply didn’t consider all of their assets while drafting their will, or failed to make it clear in their will who was the designated beneficiary for a specific asset. In other cases, the beneficiary passed away before receiving their inheritance, turning their share of the assets into a residual estate.