PER STIRPES definition: If any beneficiary predeceases the individual and leaves children, by birth or legal adoption, who survive the individual, such children of the beneficiary shall receive in equal portions the share of the proceeds the beneficiary would have received if living.
Per Stirpes is Latin for “by roots” and is synonymous with by representation or by right of representation.  Under a per stirpes distribution system, remote descendants share in the portion of the estate their immediate ancestor would have taken. For example, if a decedent had three children, C1, C2, and C3, and all were living, they would each take one-third of the estate. If C1 were deceased, but survived by two children, GC1 and GC2, they would split C1’s one-third and receive one-sixth each. C2 and C3 would still receive one-third. If all three children were deceased, GC1 and GC2 would still take one-sixth each, the
children of C2 would split one-third and the children of C3 would split the remaining third. In other words, the property would be split equally among the families of the decedent’s children.