A tangible personal property memorandum is a short, separate document that works alongside your will to say who gets specific physical belongings after your death. You list the items and the people, sign and date the list, and reference it in your will. Instead of amending the will every time you want to reassign a ring, a painting, or a set of tools, you just update the list. About 30 states recognize this kind of memorandum as legally binding, modeled on Section 2-513 of the Uniform Probate Code. Roughly 20 states do not. That split is the first thing to check before you rely on one.
Does Your State Recognize It
A majority of states have adopted some version of the Uniform Probate Code’s separate-writing rule, but a significant minority have not. New York, Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Georgia, and Louisiana are among the states that do not treat a personal property memorandum as a legally enforceable document. In those states, a list clipped to your will is a suggestion. Your executor can follow it or ignore it.
If you live in a state that does not recognize the memorandum, the only reliable way to direct specific items to specific people is to name those gifts in the will itself or use a revocable trust. Confirm your state’s current position with a local estate planning attorney before you draft one. State laws on this point change occasionally, and a document that was unenforceable five years ago may be valid now, or the reverse.
What Makes the Memorandum Legally Valid
In states that follow the UPC model, a few conditions have to be met. First, your will must contain language that explicitly references the memorandum. That reference is what gives the separate list its legal authority. Without it, the probate court has no basis to treat the list as anything more than a non-binding wish.
The memorandum itself must be in writing, signed by you, and must describe both the items and the recipients clearly enough for your executor to carry out the instructions without guessing. It does not need witnesses or a notary. The UPC exempts it from the formal execution rules that apply to the will.
The feature that makes the memorandum worth using is timing. Unlike ordinary incorporation by reference, which requires the outside document to already exist when the will is signed, the UPC carves out a specific exception for tangible personal property lists. You can create the memorandum months or years after signing your will, and you can change it whenever you want. Dating every entry is smart practice even where it is not technically required, because if more than one version exists, the most recent dated list controls.
What You Can List
The memorandum covers tangible personal property, meaning physical items you can pick up and move. Jewelry, furniture, artwork, china, silverware, books, clothing, tools, sporting equipment, and collectibles like coins or stamps are all fair game. Most people use the memorandum for items with sentimental value, though there is no rule against listing expensive items.
Whether titled property like vehicles and boats can go on the list depends on your state. The UPC text excludes only money. Some states have added exclusions for items that carry a certificate of title, because transferring a car or boat requires separate title paperwork regardless of what the memorandum says. If you want a specific person to get a vehicle, either check your state’s version of the statute or just name the vehicle in the will.
What You Cannot List
Anything that is not a tangible physical object is off-limits. The main exclusions:
- Cash, checking and savings accounts, and certificates of deposit. These are liquid assets that pass through the will, beneficiary designations, or payable-on-death arrangements.
- Stocks, bonds, and other securities. These are ownership interests, not physical goods, and move through the will or transfer-on-death registrations.
- Real estate. Homes and land require a deed and cannot be transferred by a simple list.
- Debts and promissory notes. A claim against someone else is an intangible asset.
- Business property. Inventory and items used in a trade are excluded in many states, even when they are physically tangible.
Trying to transfer excluded property through the memorandum does not fail quietly. A probate court will void the specific gift, and the item will fall into the residuary estate or pass under your state’s intestacy rules if there is no residuary clause.
Digital assets sit in the same intangible category. Cryptocurrency, online accounts, digital photo libraries, and other electronically stored content cannot be distributed through a memorandum. Even a hardware wallet, which is a physical device, stores value that is intangible in nature. Estate planners increasingly recommend that tangible property provisions in a will explicitly exclude cryptocurrency wallets and similar devices to prevent confusion. Handle digital assets separately in the will or through a dedicated digital estate plan.
How to Describe Items and People
Vague descriptions are where memorandums fail. “The gold watch to my son” invites a fight if you own two gold watches or have two sons. Describe each item with enough specificity that a stranger reading the list could identify it: the make, model, distinguishing marks, or where the item is kept. Something like “18-karat gold Rolex Submariner, serial number 16610, kept in the bedroom safe” leaves no room for argument.
Beneficiaries need the same precision. Use full legal names, not nicknames or relationships alone. If two cousins share a first name, add a middle name or date of birth. That level of detail protects your executor from disputes and protects the people you actually want to receive these items.
Each entry should carry its own date. Even if you add ten items on the same afternoon, the date creates a clear timeline. If you later reassign one of those items on a second list, the dated entries tell the executor which instruction is current.
Writing, Updating, and Storing the List
You can write the memorandum by hand or type it. Many estate planning attorneys include a template with the will. Format matters less than content: clear item descriptions, full beneficiary names, your signature, and a date.
Updates are simple. Cross out entries and initial the change, add new entries with new dates, or replace the whole document. If you replace it, destroy the old version so conflicting instructions do not surface during probate. The most recently dated and signed version wins. This is the main advantage of the memorandum over putting the same gifts in the will, where any change would require a formal codicil or a complete rewrite.
Store the memorandum with your will. If the will is in a fireproof safe, a safe deposit box, or with your attorney, the memorandum belongs right next to it. The document is not filed with any court during your lifetime. After your death, your executor presents it to the probate court along with the will. If the executor cannot find the memorandum, the items it would have directed simply drop into the residuary estate.
When a Listed Item No Longer Exists
If you list an item but no longer own it when you die, the gift fails. This is called ademption by extinction. The intended recipient gets nothing in place of that item and has no claim to whatever you received when you sold or gave it away. Courts treat the gift as though you revoked it by parting with the property.
The same principle applies if the item is destroyed. If a listed painting burned and insurance paid out, the beneficiary named for that painting does not automatically get the insurance proceeds. The proceeds are cash, and cash cannot pass through the memorandum.
Periodic review is the fix. If you sell, give away, or lose a listed item, update the memorandum. Otherwise the gift evaporates and the beneficiary walks away with nothing.
Avoiding Conflicts With the Will
Do not list an item in both the will and the memorandum with different beneficiaries. That creates a direct conflict, and resolving it costs the estate time and legal fees. If the will says the antique desk goes to your daughter but the memorandum says it goes to your nephew, someone ends up in front of a judge. The straightforward rule: if an item is specifically bequeathed in the will, keep it off the memorandum.
Any tangible personal property not listed in the memorandum and not specifically bequeathed in the will drops into the residuary estate. The residuary clause is the catch-all provision that distributes everything left after specific gifts are made. If your will leaves the rest of your estate to your three children equally, then unlisted furniture, kitchenware, and anything else not named anywhere gets split among them. If the will has no residuary clause, unlisted property passes under state intestacy laws as though you had no will at all for those items.
Appraisals for Valuable Items
The memorandum does not require you to state what anything is worth. But if you own valuable tangible property, your executor may have estate tax obligations that demand professional appraisals. Under federal regulations, if household and personal effects include items with notable artistic or intrinsic value totaling more than $3,000, the executor must file a sworn expert appraisal with the estate tax return.1eCFR. 26 CFR Part 20 – Gross Estate This covers jewelry, paintings, antiques, coin collections, oriental rugs, and similar items.
Most estates will not owe federal estate tax, because the 2026 basic exclusion amount is $15,000,000 per person.2Internal Revenue Service. Whats New – Estate and Gift Tax The appraisal requirement in the regulation, though, applies whenever a return is filed. Even below that threshold, having appraisals on record helps prevent disputes among beneficiaries about the relative value of what each person received.
Including brief value notes in the memorandum is not legally required, but it gives your executor a starting point and signals which items may need professional valuation. An entry that reads “emerald necklace, appraised at approximately $8,000 in 2024” tells the executor to get a current appraisal before distribution.
Mistakes That Make the Memorandum Fail
The memorandum is one of the simplest estate planning tools available, which is exactly why people treat it carelessly. The failures that show up most in probate:
- No reference in the will. The memorandum has no legal force unless the will specifically mentions it. If your will was drafted without that language, the list is just paper.
- Unsigned or undated. An unsigned memorandum is almost universally unenforceable. An undated one may be enforceable in some states but creates problems the moment a second version appears.
- Vague descriptions. “My jewelry to Sarah” does not tell the executor which jewelry, and if two Sarahs exist in the family, it does not tell them which Sarah either.
- Listing excluded property. Putting a bank account or real estate on the memorandum does not transfer it. It creates a void gift and confusion.
- Multiple conflicting versions. If you create a new memorandum, destroy the old one. Overlapping lists with different beneficiaries produce the exact family conflict the memorandum is supposed to prevent.
- Using one in a state that does not recognize it. This is the costliest mistake because no one realizes the document is meaningless until after you are gone.
A memorandum works best when it handles the items your family would otherwise argue about and leaves everything else to the residuary clause. Keep the list current, keep the descriptions specific, and confirm your state honors the document. Those three steps prevent most of the disputes that drag tangible property into probate court.