ademptionn.//əˈdɛmpʃən/ (uh-DEMP-shun)/
Reviewed by Owen Hathaway, AttorneyUpdated June 1, 2026When a will leaves someone a specific item, for example, "my house on Elm Street," or "my 200 shares of Acme," and that exact item is gone from the estate by the time the person dies, the gift can simply fail, leaving the beneficiary with nothing rather than a substitute. That failure is called ademption, and it is a common reason a will's promises don't match what beneficiaries actually receive.
Ademption is the failure of a specific gift (a specific devise or specific bequest) under a will because the identified property is no longer part of the estate at the testator's death, for example, if it was sold, given away, lost, or destroyed. The classic form, ademption by extinction, applies when the very thing described is absent: if the will leaves “my 1965 Mustang” and the testator sold the car years earlier, the beneficiary generally takes nothing, and the gift is said to be adeemed.
A related doctrine, ademption by satisfaction, applies when the testator gives the beneficiary all or part of the intended gift during life, so the bequest is treated as already satisfied. Ademption affects only specific gifts tied to identified property; it does not reach general gifts (such as a sum of money) or the residuary estate. Whether a gift is truly “specific,” and whether modern anti-ademption rules preserve a substitute (for example, sale proceeds or a replacement asset), can turn on the will's wording and the governing statute.
Colorado, a Uniform Probate Code state, softens the traditional rule: its nonademption provisions can give a specific devisee replacement property or the unpaid proceeds, balance, or value of the disposed item in defined circumstances (C.R.S. § 15-11-606). Wyoming, which has not adopted the UPC, hews closer to the common-law "identity" rule, under which a specific gift of property not in the estate at death generally fails with a notable exception for property sold by a conservator (Wyo. Stat. 2-6-109). In both states, careful drafting, and keeping the will current as assets change, is the practical guard against an unintended ademption.