A Gift

Have you ever heard about a Will? Yes. A Will. A Will is a testamentary document (one which speaks only after the death of the maker) which the maker makes in accordance with certain laws.

A Will enables its maker determine what will happen to his/her properties after his/her. Basically, this is the essence of a Will. It also enables its maker give instructions as to what should be done and not be done in respect of his/her burial.

The maker of a Will is usually called a testator or a testatrix. This is dependent on the sex of the individual who is either male or female. Property(ies) a person or people receive as a result of the instructions of a Will, are called gift or legacy. This kind of gift has different categories. They are:

• Specific gifts

• General gifts

• Demonstrative gifts

• Percuniary gifts

• Residuary gifts

Each of the aforementioned gifts has it's own peculiarity. However, some of them bear a few similarities and can easily be mistaken for the other if one is not careful enough.

A Specific gift for instance is a gift that is a personal property that can be moved, described and exclusively distinguished from other gifts mentioned in a Will. A specific gift is identified when the testator or testatrix uses the personal pronoun, _my_ to refer to the gift. An example of such is,

“I give my white and sky blue striped bedsheet to my son, Keka.”_

A General gift is on the other hand, is usually described but without any particular details.

A Demonstrative gift is a gift that maybe specific or general. What makes it demonstrative is that the source from where it will be gotten is mentioned in the Will.

Usually gifts of money are demonstrative. For instance the testator or testatrix says,

_“I give Kiki my Personal Assistant the sum of #20,000,000 (Twenty Million Naira) payable from my savings account with Union Bank of Nigeria with account number 01xxxx789.”_

A Percuniary gift is a money gift. This kind of gift maybe specific or demonstrative or general.

Residuary gifts are residue of the properties of the testator or testatrix after every property mentioned in the Will has been bequeathed to the respective beneficiaries of the Will. Properties which the testator or testatrix acquired after making the Will fall under this category.

Interestingly, gifts under the different aforementioned categories of gifts can fail. What this means that a gift may not be bequeathed to a beneficiary of a Will if:

• A beneficiary of a Will is a witness to the Will.

• A beneficiary dies before the testator or testatrix. There are a few exceptions to this however.

• The gift ceases to exist as at the time the Will takes effect, that is, if it has gotten lost or has been altered/destroyed. This is actually called ademption and it affects only Specific gifts.

• The gift cannot be gotten or provided due to insufficiency of property or funds as a result of settlement of the testator or testatrix' debts/liabilities. This is called abatement and is peculiar to General gifts.

• There is a public policy that restricts the beneficiary benefitting from the Will.

• A witness to the Will is a spouse of one of the beneficiaries of the Will.

• There is uncertainty as to who the beneficiary of the gift is.

Basically, a gift in respect of a Will has different peculiarities which must be paid attention to due to the fact that certain factors must be considered because of the several enactments concerned with Wills.