Connecticut: Personal Property Memorandum Requirements

Connecticut requires the gift in the executed instrument

Connecticut's current Chapter 802a contains no statute for a separate, freely
updatable tangible-personal-property list. The 2026 Supplement index lists the
Title 45a chapters changed by the 2025 session, and Chapter 802a is not among
them.

The controlling rule comes from the execution statute and Connecticut Supreme
Court decisions. Section 45a-251 says a will or codicil cannot pass property
unless it is written, subscribed by the testator, and attested by two witnesses
who each subscribe in the testator's presence.

In Hatheway v. Smith, the court held that the executed writing must itself
contain the intended bequest. Its language must denote both the subject and the
object of the testamentary gift—the property and the person who receives it.
Connecticut therefore does not use incorporation by reference to turn an
unattested dispositive memorandum into part of a will.

An outside paper still can have a limited evidentiary role. Hatheway permits
extrinsic documents to identify a person or property already denoted by a gift
actually made in the will. The paper cannot supply a recipient or gift that the
executed instrument never expressed.

What trips people up

Preparing the list before the will does not solve the problem. Connecticut's
rule is not merely that a referenced paper must predate the will. The dispositive
terms must be in the writing executed with will formalities. In Bryan's Appeal,
a reference to a sealed letter found with the will did not make the letter part
of the will, and parol evidence could not repair the reference.

Section 45a-260 creates a different rule for a devise or bequest to a trustee of
a qualifying trust. The trust may be established before, with, or after the
will, and later trust amendments can govern the property poured into it. In
Waterbury National Bank, the court distinguished that kind of gift to an
existing trust from importing “an unattested memorandum of [the testator's]
mere desires and expectations.” A personal-property recipient list is not made
valid merely by relabeling the general incorporation problem as a trust rule.

A binding later change to the gifts should appear in a later valid will or
codicil. Section 45a-257 recognizes revocation by a later will or codicil, along
with its listed physical-act routes; it does not provide for an informal
replacement list.

Common questions

Can my will say that my executor must follow any list I leave?

That direction does not make the list a binding testamentary disposition.
Hatheway requires the executed will or codicil itself to contain the intended
bequest. A separate letter of wishes may be practically informative, but it
does not become the missing gift through the will's reference.

Can the list be signed and dated without witnesses?

Signing and dating alone do not satisfy Connecticut's ordinary will or codicil
execution rule. Section 45a-251 requires a written instrument subscribed by the
testator and attested by two witnesses, each subscribing in the testator's
presence. The statute does not supply a handwriting-only alternative or require
a date as a substitute for attestation.

May a separate paper identify an item already given in the will?

Potentially. Connecticut decisions allow outside evidence to identify the
person or property described by a bequest actually made in the executed will.
That is an identification function, not authority to add a new item-recipient
gift that is absent from the will.

What happens if the will contains only a reference and the list contains the gifts?

The outside paper cannot prove the missing bequests. Hatheway treated the
executed instrument as containing no bequest and rejected incorporation of the
extrinsic dispositive document. The property then follows the other effective
terms of the will or, if none dispose of it, the applicable intestacy rules.

Statutes and sources

• Connecticut General Statutes Chapter 802a — complete current wills-
  execution-and-construction index and statutory text, with no separate personal-
  property-memorandum section. Connecticut General Assembly:
  https://prdext3.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_802a.htm (accessed 2026-08-11).
• 2026 Supplement, Title 45a index — revised to January 1, 2026; the listed
  changed Title 45a chapters do not include Chapter 802a. Connecticut General
  Assembly: https://www.cga.ct.gov/2026/sup/titles.htm (accessed 2026-08-11).
• Conn. Gen. Stat. § 45a-251 — execution requirements for a will or codicil.
  Connecticut General Assembly:
  https://prdext3.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_802a.htm#sec_45a-251 (accessed
  2026-08-11).
• Conn. Gen. Stat. § 45a-257 — revocation by physical act or later will or
  codicil. Connecticut General Assembly:
  https://prdext3.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_802a.htm#sec_45a-257 (accessed
  2026-08-11).
• Conn. Gen. Stat. § 45a-260 — the separate statutory exception for devises
  and bequests to qualifying trusts. Connecticut General Assembly:
  https://prdext3.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_802a.htm#sec_45a-260 (accessed
  2026-08-11).
• Bryan's Appeal from Probate, 77 Conn. 240, 58 A. 748 (1904) — an
  inadequately referenced sealed letter was not part of the will and could not
  be rescued by parol evidence. https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/3324771/
  (accessed 2026-08-11).
• Hatheway v. Smith, 79 Conn. 506, 65 A. 1058 (1907) — Connecticut rejects
  dispositive incorporation by reference and requires the executed instrument
  itself to contain the bequest. https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/3321360/
  (accessed 2026-08-11).
• Waterbury National Bank v. Waterbury National Bank, 162 Conn. 129, 291
  A.2d 737 (1972) — distinguishes an effective gift to an identified existing
  trust from an unattested memorandum of wishes.
  https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/2167741/ (accessed 2026-08-11).