Memorandum of Tangible Personal Property (NY)

After you complete your Last Will and Testament, you might think of something else that you want to leave to a specific person or acquire new tangible personal property that you want to leave instructions for. Instead of redoing your entire will, you may be able to create a Memorandum of Tangible Personal Property to list gifts you'd like to make.

"Tangible personal property" includes physical objects that belong to you and can be given to someone else, such as jewelry, furniture, art, collectibles, etc. It does not include things like bank or other financial accounts, real estate, business interests, or intellectual property.

In some states this type of document won't be legally binding. However, most trustworthy personal representatives will follow your wishes even if they aren't required to by law. And, even if someone challenges this document, personal representatives often have broad discretion to distribute gifts as they see fit, so a challenge won't necessarily undermine your wishes. So, despite not being legally binding, this document is important because it tells your personal representative what your wishes are so they can follow them if they choose to.

This document should NOT be used to cancel or override any specific gifts in your will. It should only be used to ADD specific gifts to your will. If you want to change or delete gifts made in your will, or if you're concerned about this document not being legally binding, you should consider creating a codicil or drafting a new will.