Gifts of shares in a publicly traded company are generally treated as general gifts rather than specific gifts.

• A. Specific gifts
• B. General gifts
• C. Demonstrative gifts
• D. Residuary gifts

Answer: (B)

In gift classifications, a specific gift is property that is identified with certainty and can be separated from other property, while a general gift is property that isn’t identified in that way and is usually viewed as a fixed amount or a class of property.

Gifts of shares in a publicly traded company fit the general gift idea. Shares are fungible and often held in a brokerage account in street name, so you can’t point to a single, uniquely identifiable share as the exact item being given. Instead, the gift is to transfer the class of stock or the right to receive a certain value of that stock, which makes it indistinguishable from other similar shares at the time of the gift. Because the exact, identified item isn’t singled out and the recipient can later receive the market value or an equivalent number of shares, this is treated as a general gift.

If a donor did specify a particular lot or a specific share certificate identified at a particular time, that would be more like a specific gift. The other categories don’t fit as well here: a demonstrative gift is a general gift paid from a specified source, and a residuary gift is what’s left after other gifts are satisfied.