Abatement of debts and legacies is a common law doctrine of wills that holds that when the equitable assets of a deceased person are not sufficient to satisfy fully all the creditors, their debts must abate proportionately, and they must accept a dividend.
In the case of legacies when the funds or assets out of which they are payable are not sufficient to pay them in full, the legacies abate in proportion, unless there is a priority given specially to any particular legacy. Annuities are also subject to the same rule as general legacies.
The order of abatement is usually:
- Intestate property
- The residuary of the estate
- General Devises--i.e., cash gifts
- Demonstrative Devises--i.e., cash gifts from a specific account, stocks, bonds, securities, etc...
- Specific Devises--i.e., specified items of personal property, real property, etc...
Non-probate property--i.e., life insurance policies--do not abate.
Read more about Abatement Of Debts And Legacies: Definitions
Famous quotes containing the words abatement of, abatement and/or legacies:
“The distempers of the soul have their relapses, as many and as dangerous as those of the body; and what we take for a perfect cure is generally either an abatement of the same disease or the changing of that for another.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)
“The distempers of the soul have their relapses, as many and as dangerous as those of the body; and what we take for a perfect cure is generally either an abatement of the same disease or the changing of that for another.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)
“The legacies that parents and church and teachers left to my generation of Black children were priceless but not material: a living faith reflected in daily service, the discipline of hard work and stick-to-itiveness, and a capacity to struggle in the face of adversity.”
—Marian Wright Edelman (20th century)