Tangible personal property

What it means

Tangible personal property is one of three categories the law divides property into: real property, tangible personal property, and intangible personal property such as accounts, shares and policies.

It is the category with the least paperwork and the most disagreement. Most of it has no title, no registration and no record of who owns it.

Many states let a will refer to a separate handwritten list disposing of these items, which can be changed without redoing the will.

Why it matters

It is where families fall out. The value is usually small and the meaning is not, and there is rarely any document saying who was meant to have what.

It also matters for the arithmetic: household contents are part of the estate and belong in the inventory even when nobody intends to sell them.

When you are likely to meet it

• When clearing a house.
• When beneficiaries want particular items.
• When an inventory of the estate has to be prepared.

How this varies by state

Whether a will may incorporate a separate list of tangible items, and what formalities that list needs, are set by state law.

Related terms

• AppraisalA professional opinion of what something was worth on a particular date — usually the date of death.
• EstateEverything the person owned at the moment they died, treated as one thing that has to be settled.
• Estate saleA sale of the contents of a house, usually run by a company on commission. It is one of several ways to clear a home, and rarely the only one worth considering.
• Fair market valueWhat a willing buyer would pay a willing seller, neither under pressure and both knowing the facts.
• Firearms after a deathGuns in an estate are property with their own federal and state rules, and moving one to the wrong person can be a criminal offense rather than a paperwork error.
• Intangible personal propertyProperty with value but no physical form — bank accounts, shares, policies, pensions, patents, a debt somebody owes.
• Inventory and appraisementA list of everything in the estate with a value against each item, filed with the court or given to the beneficiaries.
• Letter of instructionAn informal document left alongside a will, saying the practical things a will has no room for.
• Probate assetSomething owned in the deceased person's name alone, with nobody named to receive it.
• Real propertyLand and what is permanently attached to it — a house, a barn, a fixed structure. Everything else a person owns is personal property.
• Safe-deposit boxA box rented at a bank. Getting into one after the renter has died is its own procedure, and often a slower one than the family expects.
• Specific bequestA gift in a will of a particular thing — a named account, a ring, a car — rather than a share of what is left.
• Vacant and unoccupiedTwo words an insurer uses differently, and the difference can void the cover on an empty house after a death.

Sahvelo guidance that uses this

• Personal property
• Clearing a home