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The Law of Wills, Trusts and Inheritance
Part of the common law series
Wills
Wills  · Holographic will
Joint wills and mutual wills  · Will contract
Codicils
Parts of a Will
Attestation clause  · Residuary clause
Incorporation by reference
Contesting a Will
Testamentary capacity  · Undue influence
Insane delusion  · Fraud
Problems of property disposition
Lapse and anti-lapse
Ademption  · Abatement
Acts of independent significance
Elective share  · Pretermitted heir
Trusts
The Law of Trusts
Generic Terms:
Express trust  · Constructive trust
Resulting trust
Common Types of Trust:
Bare trust · Discretionary trust
Accumulation and Maintenance trust
Interest in Possession trust
Charitable trust
Purpose trust
Other Specific Types of Trust:
Protective trust  · Spendthrift trust
Life insurance trust  · Remainder trust
Life interest trust  · Reversionary interest trust
Honorary trust  · Asset-protection trust
Special needs trust: (general)/(U.S.)
Doctrines governing trusts
Pour-over will  · Cy pres doctrine
Other related topics
Living Wills (advance directives)
Inheritance
Intestacy  · Testator  · Probate
Power of appointment
Simultaneous death  · Slayer rule
Disclaimer of interest
Other areas of the Common Law
Contract law  · Tort law  · Property law
Criminal law  · Evidence

Ademption is a term used in the law of wills to determine what happens when property bequested under a will is no longer in the testator's estate when the testator dies. For devises of specific items of property, the property is adeemed, and the gift fails. If, for example, the will bequeathed the testator's car to a specific person, but the testator owned no car at the time of his death, then the gift would have been adeemed.

General devises - gifts of cash amounts - are never adeemed. If there is not enough cash in the testator's estate to satisfy the gift, then other assets in the residuary estate are sold to raise the necessary cash.

Some property lies in a gray area, where the testator's specific intent must be determined. For example, where the testator bequests "500 shares of stock" in a company, this may be read as a general devise (that the estate should purchase and convey the particular stocks to the beneficiary), or it may be read as a specific devise, particularly if the testator used a possessive ("my 500 shares").

Ademption may also be waived if the property leaves the estate after the testator has been declared incompetent. Furthermore, in some cases the beneficiary will be entitled to the proceeds from the sale of property, or to the insurance payout for property that is lost or destroyed.

To avoid confusion as to what may or may not be adeemed, it is advisable that the phrase "if owned by me at my death" be placed into the articles of a will in which property is being bequeathed.

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