Can I Leave a Separate List of Belongings With My Will?

You know exactly who should get your mother's ring, the piano, and the tools in the garage. What you do not want is to pay for a new will every time you change your mind about a set of dishes.

Washington has a statute built for this. Under RCW 11.12.260, your will or a living trust that becomes irrevocable on or before your death can refer to a separate written list that says who receives specific belongings, and that list is given effect as if it were written into the will or trust itself. You can write it after the will is signed and change it later without witnesses. The list has firm limits, though, and it handles the death of a named recipient differently than a will does.

What Makes the List Legally Effective

RCW 11.12.260 sets three requirements, and all three must be met. First, an unrevoked will, or a trust that becomes irrevocable on or before the grantor's death, must refer to the writing. A list with no will or trust pointing to it has no legal force, no matter how clear it is. Second, the writing must be either in your own handwriting or signed by you. A typed list works if you sign it, and a handwritten list works even without a signature, but a typed, unsigned page does not qualify. Third, the writing must describe the items and the recipients with reasonable certainty.

That third requirement is where homemade lists fail. "My good jewelry to the girls" invites an argument about which pieces and which girls. "My platinum wedding ring with three diamonds to my daughter Katherine" does not.

The statute does not call for witnesses or a notary on the list. The formal signing rules apply to the will that refers to it, which is covered in how to make a valid will in Washington.

What Can Go on the List and What Cannot

The list can only direct "tangible personal property," and RCW 11.12.260 defines the term. It means articles of personal or household use or ornament, and the statute gives examples: furniture, furnishings, automobiles, boats, airplanes, and jewelry. It also includes precious metals in any tangible form, with bullion and coins as the examples, and it covers these articles even if you held them as investments.

Several things are outside the statute's reach. The definition excludes intangible property, and the statute's examples are money that is normal currency or legal tender, evidences of indebtedness, bank accounts and other monetary deposits, documents of title, and securities. So a line that reads "$5,000 to my nephew" does nothing, and neither does a line giving away a brokerage account. The definition also expressly excludes mobile homes, and real estate is not tangible personal property at all.

Two further limits come from the opening sentence of the statute. The list cannot dispose of property used primarily in a trade or business, so the equipment of a working shop or the inventory of a store belongs in the will or a business succession plan. And the list reaches only items "not otherwise specifically disposed of" by the will or trust. If the will itself gives the piano to your son, a list entry giving it to your daughter does not override the will.

Can I Write or Change the List After Signing My Will?

Yes, and this is the main advantage. RCW 11.12.260 says the writing may be written or signed before or after the will or trust is executed. A will signed this year can refer to a list you do not write until next year.

You can also revise it. The statute allows you to make later handwritten or signed changes to any writing, and if two writings give the same item to different people, the most recent writing controls. That rule only works if someone can tell which writing is the most recent, so every version and every change deserves a date.

Everything outside the list still requires the full formalities. Changing who receives the house, the accounts, or the remainder of the estate takes a new will or a codicil, as explained in can I change my will after signing it.

What If the Person Named on the List Dies Before I Do?

Here the list departs from the ordinary rule for wills. Under RCW 11.12.110, when a will leaves property to certain relatives of the person making it, and that relative dies first leaving descendants, the descendants generally step into the gift. The article on what happens if someone in your will dies before you do walks through that rule.

RCW 11.12.260 turns that protection off for the list. If a person named in the writing dies before you, the property passes as the writing further directs. If the writing gives no further direction, the gift lapses, and the statute says RCW 11.12.110 does not apply to that lapse. The item then falls back to be handled by the rest of the will, which usually means it goes to whoever receives the remainder of the estate.

The fix is in your hands, because the statute honors backup instructions written into the list, such as a second choice if the first person does not survive you.

A Worked Example

Helen, a widow in Mill Creek, signs a will that leaves her estate equally to her two children and refers to a separate list of personal items. A year later she writes the list by hand: her wedding ring to her daughter Kate, the piano to her son Mark, her woodworking tools to her brother Tom, and $2,000 in cash to a niece. Two years after that, she signs and dates a short note giving the wedding ring to her granddaughter instead.

At Helen's death, the ring goes to the granddaughter, because the most recent writing controls. The piano goes to Mark. The $2,000 entry fails, because cash is not tangible personal property under RCW 11.12.260, and the niece receives nothing from the list. Tom died a year before Helen, leaving a son. Helen's list said nothing about what should happen if Tom died first, so the gift of the tools lapses. Tom's son does not take them in his father's place, and the tools pass to Kate and Mark with the rest of the estate. One added phrase, "or to his son if Tom does not survive me," would have changed that result.

Keeping the List Useful

A list that cannot be found is no better than no list, so the signed original belongs with the original will. Keep the original list and will together in a place your representative can locate.

The list earns its keep in blended families. When a will leaves the remainder of the estate to a second spouse, heirlooms from a first marriage travel with that remainder unless something specific says otherwise. A short, dated, signed list is often the simplest way to send a grandmother's china to the children it was meant for.

Make Sure Your Will Points to the List

The list only works if the will or trust refers to it, and many older and do-it-yourself wills do not. The Law Office of Chad Foster drafts wills and trusts that include the reference RCW 11.12.260 requires and helps clients put together lists that meet the statute. Call 425.785.8679 to talk with a Snohomish County estate planning attorney about your will and the belongings that matter most.