Deed of gift

A deed of gift is a signed legal document that voluntarily and without recompense transfers ownership of real property, personal property or intellectual property from one person or institution to another. The source gives a gift of materials to an institution as an example of the kind of transfer it can record. Because nothing is paid, the deed is a written instrument of voluntary transfer rather than a sale or an exchange, and it is signed to make the transfer of ownership formal. A deed of gift should also set out any possible conditions restricting access to, use of, or preservation of the gift, so that the terms on which the donor parted with the property are stated at the outset and follow the gift to its new owner. The source article is brief, so the rules of particular jurisdictions on witnessing, registration or revocation are not described here and remain for later depth work.