@yogeoff,
Quote:EXAMPLE: mr geoff's would be 25% + 25% of 34.5 = ?????
If you do it that way you will end up 34.5% of the extra money left over and have to do the whole process again and again until you have no money left over.
The percentages add up to 65.5% of the estate. You need to find a way to make them add up to 100% since 100% of the money will be given away. What factor multiplied by each percentage will make the 65.5% add up to 100%?
.25X + .1X + .025X + etc = 1.000
Since you have already added up the percentages and they equal 65.5% that means the equation is:
.655X = 1.000
Solve for X, multiply each bequeathed percentage times X to get their total percentage. Them multiply that by 50% to see that they get from the total 100,00. Now you can check your math by adding up what each person gets and see if it adds up to the amount of money in the will.