Avoiding Ademption

Matthew Groves (Associate Professor of Law, Monash University School of Law) recently published his article entitled Adeptly Avoiding Ademption, 84 Law Institute Journal 36 (2010). The abstract available on SSRN is below:

Many things can change between the drafting of a will and the death of a testator. One increasingly common event is that testators require specialist aged care and their only substantial asset – the family home – is sold to fund that care. These arrangements can have an unexpected impact on the will. The doctrine of ademption can cause a specific gift of the house to fail, though there is growing recognition of an exception for cases involving the sale of property made on behalf of an infirm testator.