Also known as: specifically identified · specific identification method · specific ID method
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A method of designating a particular, precisely identified item of property in a legal instrument. The dispositive language may identify the asset by current ownership, future acquisition, or a fractional share of a designated fund or account.
Thomas executes a will leaving his partnership interest in Field Partners and related receivables to his niece Hailey. After the will is signed, Thomas withdraws from the firm under a buyout. At death the interest no longer exists in the estate. The devise fails by ademption because the will used specific identification of the original asset rather than a general sum.
Sterling Dynamics grants a mortgage to Sapphire Technologies that lists two earlier loans by date and amount. When Sterling later defaults on a new loan, Sapphire claims the mortgage secures the prior advances. The mortgage has dragnet effect only because the earlier loans were specifically identified in the document.
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A specific devise requires a testamentary disposition of a precisely identified asset. A general devise instead directs payment of a stated amount or quantity from the estate's general assets without tying the gift to any particular item.
Yes. A devise of the house the testator owns and resides in at death or the car owned at death qualifies as specific even though the asset is not owned when the will is executed.
Specific devises abate last. When the estate lacks sufficient assets, residuary, general, and demonstrative devises are reduced before specific devises are touched.
The devise is adeemed by extinction. The beneficiary receives nothing unless the will provides a substitute gift or the jurisdiction has an anti-ademption statute.