A voluntary transfer of any property by an individual during a
marriage or civil union and not to take effect until after the
individual’s death, made without adequate consideration and for the
primary purpose of defeating a surviving spouse in a claim to a share
of the decedent’s property so transferred, shall be void and
inoperative to bar the claim. The decedent shall be deemed at the
time of his or her death to be the owner and seised of an interest in
such property sufficient for the purpose of assigning and setting out
the surviving spouse’s share.
This provision is found within a subchapter addressing “Survivors’ Rights and Allowances,” which
also sets forth the “Share of surviving spouse,” id. § 311 (setting forth intestate share), and the
provision concerning “Waiver of will by surviving spouse,” id. § 319 (setting forth elective share).
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¶ 19. It is evident that the “share” to which a surviving spouse has a claim, referenced in
§ 321, is his or her statutory share. This is consistent with the statutory scheme and the use of the
term “share” both in our case law and prior statutory provisions. See, e.g., Thayer, 14 Vt. at 120
(recognizing widow’s statutory right to “at least, one-third of the personal estate, after the payment
of debts, &c.,” and referring to it as “[t]he widow’s claims for her share”); In re Peck’s Estate, 87
Vt. 194, 212, 88 A. 568, 576 (1913), superseded by statute on other grounds, as recognized by In
re Cartwell’s Estate, 120 Vt. 228, 230, 138 A.2d 588, 589 (1958) (explaining that husband was
entitled to waive wife’s will and claim “his statutory share of [wife]’s estate”). We find no support
for wife’s assertion that the term “share” might refer to an asset that “would” have been distributed