Specific Legatee Case Study

Situations of Use and Tax Implications:
Specific legacy – a specific legacy can be used when the testator wished for a specific piece of property to go to an individual legatee. Although the courts and the law show disfavor against this type of legacy, it can be common in situations where the testator wishes to give a unique family heirlooms or property of particular sentimental meaning to a specific legatee. In addition, it is important to note that in the hierarchy of legacies, specific legacies have priority over general or residual legacies. An example of this would be a grandfather leaving his families collection of watches to his only surviving grandson as opposed to having them split amongst the family or sold to support general legacy distributions. Although one has to be concerned that the legatee may receive nothing with this type of request, either due to the property specified being sold or destroyed, some items may be considered to have less of a risk under this type of classification. Specifically, if we refer back to the watch

Since the testator has already reserved particular property for the specific legacies, they may now be inclined to support a cause there were passionate about. In this can, they would not want to do a specific request because the testator would have to keep track the specific asset and update their will if a sale, loss, or theft of the property were to occur. By giving a general gift, the testator can be confident that the specific amount to be given will be received by the charity, as long as the value of the total estate warrants its release. Since general gifts may often be stated in cash value and the IRS has only deemed interest or other income generated from the inheritance (….), as opposed to the inheritance itself, as taxable, this type of legacies often will not have unique tax