This is where you gift something you own to a person, a group of people a charity or other organisation.
You can make gifts of:
- Money
- Specific Items
- Property, e.g. a house or flat
- Stocks or shares
- A right to live in your property (currently in development)
Note: Specific gifts are distributed before your residuary estate is divided up, so they do not form part of your residuary estate.
This is entirely up to you. You can give your things to whomever you wish.
Many wills do not give any specific gifts, leaving everything to be distributed by the residuary clause.
If your will makes a gift to someone who subsequently dies before you, the gift will fail and will form part of your residuary estate.
A substitutional clause can be used to direct the gift to another beneficiary if the original beneficiary dies before you.
To include a substitutional clause in your gift, click in the check box 'Show advanced options for if the beneficiary dies before me'
The four categories of gift you can give with Wills For Free are explained below.
A Sum of Money
You can leave a sum of money to a person, a class of people, a charity or other organisation.
If you leave a sum of money to a class of people, you have the option of the sum specified being divided equally among the class members or each member receiving the sum specified.
A Specific Item or Items
You can leave a specific item or items to a person, a class of people, a charity or other organisation.
If you are leaving a specific item, you must adequately describe it. The gift will fail if it cannot be distinguished from other similar items.
For example: "I leave my watch to my son Bill Franklyn" will fail if you have several watches. Give a better description such as: "I give my gold Cartier watch ..."
Typical examples of specific items are: "my ... "
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"jewellery"
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"art collection as described in the enclosed schedule" (you must ensure that you enclose a schedule with the will that details which paintings etc. are included)
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"Clarice Cliff antiques" (an antiques collection could also be described in a schedule)
Note: if any gift fails, it will form part of your residuary estate to be distributed among your residuary beneficiaries, unless a substitute beneficiary has been specified.
Stocks and Shares
You can leave stocks and shares in a company to a person, a class of people, a charity or other organisation.
Note: If leaving shares to a class of people, some share registrars do not allow a single shareholding to be divided among several beneficiaries. In this case your executors will have to sell the shares.
Note: You must be entitled to the shares on death.
Real Property, e.g. a house
You can leave your real property such as a house, flat or land to a person, a class of people, a charity or other organisation.