Leaving Specific Gifts in a Will

A specific gift, sometimes called a specific legacy, is a gift of a particular, identifiable item, such as 'my diamond engagement ring' or 'my house at 12 Elm Road'. A pecuniary legacy, by contrast, is a gift of a fixed amount of money, such as 'I give £5,000 to my niece'. The residue is everything remaining in your estate once specific gifts, pecuniary legacies, debts, funeral expenses and any inheritance tax have been accounted for.

This distinction matters practically. If a specific item no longer exists at your death, that gift alone generally fails; a pecuniary legacy of a set sum remains payable as long as the estate has enough funds; and the residue simply absorbs whatever is left, whether that is more or less than expected because of how the specific gifts and legacies played out.

The most common problem with specific gifts is vague wording. 'My car', 'my jewellery' or 'my paintings' can all become ambiguous if you own more than one of the relevant item, or if what you own changes between making the will and your death. Describe items with enough detail, such as make and registration for a car, or a clear physical description and location for a painting, that there is no realistic room for dispute.

Where you are leaving several similar items to different people, for example dividing a set of paintings between three children, list each item against the specific person, rather than a general instruction to divide items 'equally' or 'fairly', which leaves your executors to make judgment calls you may not have wanted them to make.

A specific gift can fail for several reasons: the item no longer exists or is no longer owned by you at death (ademption), the named beneficiary has died before you and there is no substitute beneficiary named, or the gift is otherwise invalid. When a specific gift fails, it does not automatically pass to anyone else; instead, it usually falls back into the residue of your estate, benefiting whoever is entitled to residue instead of the intended recipient.

This is one of the most important practical reasons to review your will periodically. A gift that fails is rarely what the person making the will actually wanted, and reviewing your will after major changes, such as selling a named asset or a beneficiary's death, avoids unintended results.

Unless a will provides otherwise, a specific gift is generally given free of inheritance tax attributable to it, meaning the tax is paid from the residue rather than reducing the value of the gift itself, and the same is usually true of reasonable costs of delivering or transferring the item to the beneficiary. It is good practice for a will to state this expressly, so there is no argument about who bears these costs.

You can attach reasonable conditions to a specific gift, such as requiring a beneficiary to reach a certain age, though conditions need to be drafted carefully to be workable and legally valid, and this is an area where professional drafting help is worthwhile if your wishes go beyond a simple outright gift.

Because specific gifts depend on you still owning the named item at death, they are the part of a will most likely to be undermined by changes in your circumstances, such as selling a car, moving house, or giving away a piece of jewellery during your lifetime. Reviewing your will regularly, and particularly after any significant change in what you own, is the best way to avoid gifts failing unintentionally.

For a long or changeable list of smaller items, many people prefer a memorandum of wishes alongside the will, which can be updated informally without the cost and formality of amending the will itself, while more significant or high-value items are usually best named directly in the will for certainty.