Reasons to Also Give to Daughters
12. Although mideoraisa a daughter does not inherit when there is a son, different factors in earlier generations created a need to give a daughter a share of the inheritance, either so that people would be willing to marry her (Teshuvos Maharam Mintz 50); to make her beloved to her husband (Nachalas Shiva 21:4:2); because a daughter works harder than a son to meet the father’s needs, especially in his old age, and he wants to express his gratitude to her (Tosafos Bava Basra 131a; Beis David 137); or other reasons. The main reason, which is very relevant nowadays, is so that the sons and daughters don’t fight after their father’s passing (Rema Choshen Mishpat 257:2).
Worded as an Inheritance
13. If one wants to leave something for his daughters and writes in his will that they should also inherit, his words are meaningless since he stipulated against the Torah, which says that only sons inherit. Thus, he must transfer property to them while he is alive with halachically valid kinyanim since a kinyan cannot take effect after his death.
Gift While He Is Alive
14. If a man would give his daughters property as a gift in his lifetime, that property would immediately and entirely belong to them, and there is always a concern that he will need it but no longer own it. Also, if the property is entirely theirs, they also get all future yields [“peiros”], and most of the time the father doesn’t want that to happen yet. Furthermore, a general gift he gives now doesn’t do anything for property he receives or buys later. Therefore, Chazal set up multiple valid ways for a father to benefit his daughters, as will be explained.
15. Take effect after death. Even if a father says he is giving something to his daughters with a kinyan now that should not take effect until after his death, that doesn’t work. Even when a kinyan is made with money or a shtar, which are still around later, the giver must be alive and sane at the time the kinyan takes effect (Bava Basra 135b). Also, after his death the property isn’t his to give to his daughters – it belongs to the heirs.
16. Main kinyan now, yields after death. There was a time when people would give their daughters property with a kinyan that took effect on the property right then but on its yields only after their death. I.e., the daughters owned the physical property from the moment it was given, but the father retained the rights to the property’s yields until the day of his death. He would also limit the kinyan to properties that would remain in his possession at the time of his death, allowing himself to sell or transfer properties as he wished while alive. He also retained the right to retract the gift until his death (Rema Choshen Mishpat 257:7).
17. However, even this method only includes property a person had when he gave the gift, not property he receives later, which was nonexistent at the time of the gift [“lo ba le’olam”] (Rema Choshen Mishpat 281:7). It also does not include debts, money in the bank, and the like.
