Also known as: pour over · pourover · pour-over will · pour-over trust · pour over will · pourover trust
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A provision in a will that adds property to an inter vivos trust or funds a trust whose terms appear in a separate instrument executed during the testator's lifetime. The devise may be validated by statute, incorporation by reference, or independent significance. Revocation or termination of the referenced trust before the testator's death causes the devise to lapse unless the will provides otherwise.
Phoebe Park executes a will that directs the residue of her estate to the trustee of her existing revocable investment trust. The trust was created and funded during her lifetime with securities. At her death the poured-over assets join the trust and are administered under its terms including any amendments made before death.
Peter Park signs a will pouring his brokerage account into a trust whose terms appear in a document executed the same day. The trust receives no assets until the will takes effect. State statute validates the devise so the account passes to the trustee for administration under the trust instrument.
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Piper Patel executes a will leaving startup shares to the trustee of her revocable trust. One month before death she revokes the trust in writing and the will contains no alternate disposition. The specific devise lapses and the shares pass to her heirs by intestacy.
The devise lapses unless the will provides otherwise. The property then passes under the residuary clause or by intestacy. Multiple bar questions test this exact outcome when the will is silent on revocation.
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Validation occurs by statute, incorporation by reference, or independent significance. The doctrine of independent significance is preferred because it permits post-execution amendments and does not require the trust instrument to exist at will execution.
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Yes. The Restatement expressly permits a pour-over to fund a trust that receives no assets until death provided the trust terms appear in a lifetime instrument. Nearly all states have statutes confirming this result.
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The doctrine validates the devise when the trust has significance apart from the will, such as an employer benefits booklet or a signed donor agreement used for non-testamentary purposes. Post-execution amendments are given effect under this theory.
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…claim they are entitled to the decedent’s entire estate as her sole heirs at law. In upholding the validity of the decedent’s pour-over trust, the judge cited the relevant provisions of G. L. c. 203, § 3B, inserted by St. 1963, c. 418, § 1, the Commonwealth’s version of the Uniform Testamentary Additions to Trusts Act. “A devise…