Following death, the “surviving spouse” no longer qualifies as a “spouse”.
The surviving spouse is also commonly referred to as the “widow”.
Typically, in a trust deed the term “beneficiaries” includes descendants of the settlor plus their spouses together with the surviving spouse of the settlor (ie the widow) as this is generally effective for tax purposes; the settlor’s spouse not being included.
If the child of the settlor is married and life interests area appointed to the child and his spouse who are at that time beneficiaries and the child subsequently dies (in which case the child’s surviving spouse at that time no longer qualifies as a beneficiary of the trust because the surviving spouse is no longer a spouse) I do not believe that this causes the life interest to terminate.
Malcolm Finney