Absolutely. One commonly used phrase in a Will (that may have unintended consequences over time) is: “If one of my children predecease me, then their share goes to his or her siblings equally.”
This phrase means that all surviving children split the assets of the maker of the Will equally upon death, with no consideration to any other persons or their family.
As written, the children of a deceased “child” (who may be an elderly adult with adult children once the Will is finally executed) would have no claim to any of the assets of the maker of the Will, even though those children are the direct grandchildren of the maker of the Will.
Typically, such a phrase makes sense when the children of the maker of a Will are very young, or even young adults with no families of their own. But over time, such a phrase can leave a person’s grandchildren out of a Will simply because the grandchildren’s parent — who is the child of the maker of the Will — has died before the Will is executed. Such a slight of the immediate family of the dead child is rarely intended, which is why it is critical to fully understand the terms of the Last Will and Testament that a person signs.
If the maker of a Will wishes to include fully the remaining immediate family of a “child” who dies, then there are two options: make certain that the language above is not included in the Will document; or create a Will with “specific gifting provisions”, a format of Will that Standard Legal includes in its Last Will and Testament legal forms package.