Also known as: inter vivos gift · inter-vivos gift · inter-vivos gifts · gifts inter vivos
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A transfer of property made by a donor during the donor's lifetime. When accompanied by a qualifying contemporaneous writing, the transfer may reduce a devise by satisfaction or offset an heir's intestate share as an advancement.
Faith executed a will leaving Isaiah a specific devise of one hundred thousand dollars. Several months later Faith wired seventy five thousand dollars to Isaiah. The memo on the wire read advance on legacy. After Faith's death the estate treats the transfer as satisfying the devise in part. Isaiah receives only twenty five thousand dollars from the estate because the lifetime gift operates to reduce the amount due under the will.
Cole provided his daughter Virginia with a fully furnished office suite valued at eighty five thousand dollars. Cole drafted an internal firm memo stating the suite was an advance on what she would eventually receive from him. Cole died intestate survived by Virginia and his son Brenda. Brenda petitions to treat the office suite as an advancement. The suite offsets Virginia's intestate share because the memo supplies the required contemporaneous writing.
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The testator must indicate in a contemporaneous writing that the gift is intended to operate in satisfaction of the devise. The devisee's written acknowledgment is an alternative but not required when the testator supplies the writing. The memo line on a wire transfer stating advance on legacy satisfies the requirement.
Supporting sources
The gift reduces the share only if the decedent declared in a contemporaneous writing or the heir acknowledged in writing that the gift is an advancement. A memo prepared at the time of transfer but never shown to the heir still qualifies under the writing requirement.
Supporting sources
The standard for mental capacity to make an irrevocable inter vivos gift is higher than the standard for executing a will. The donor must understand the effect the gift may have on the donor's future financial security and on anyone dependent on the donor.
Supporting sources
…marry a Jewish girl as the condition of a completed gift. But it is not true that if Dr. Shapira had agreed to make his son an inter-vivos gift if he married a Jewish girl within seven years, that his son could have forced him to make the gift free of the condition. It is noted, furthermore, in this connection, that the courts of…