🔑 Why Courts Distrust Oral Testimony About a Decedents Statements

Courts are often asked to evaluate testimony about what a decedent allegedly said before death. The reliability of such testimony has long been questioned.

This concern helps explain why the law often requires formalities for transfers of property, particularly transfers intended to take effect at death. Written instruments, signatures, witnesses, and delivery requirements serve evidentiary purposes: they provide more reliable proof of a transferor's intent than contested recollections of conversations.