What it Includes

• Tangible personal property includes assets that have concrete form and do not fall into any other category. For example, real estate is concrete, but South Carolina law classifies it as real property, not personal property. If you walk through your home, you'll note innumerable examples of tangible personal property, such as your furniture, television, computer, stereo, artwork, books, audio and video recordings, kitchen utensils and equipment, china and glassware. Tangible personal property can be almost anything you bought or acquired during your lifetime and still own when you pass away. Your clothing counts, as well as vehicles such as cars, bicycles, all-terrain vehicles or boats.
  
  

What it Doesn't Include

• Bank accounts are not tangible personal property. Although you can hold a passbook or investment account statement in your hands, you're only holding a representation of the asset, not the asset itself. South Carolina considers financial holdings to be intangible personal property.
  
  

Probate Process

• If you're married, Section 62-2-805 of the South Carolina Code of Laws says that unless you specifically bequeath an item of tangible personal property to someone else in your will, it automatically passes to your spouse if it's in your joint possession, or her possession, when you die. This presumes that you do not hold title to an item in your name alone, like you might with some larger items, such as automobiles. Items titled specifically to you, premarital property, inherited property and gifted property are exempt from this law and become part of your probate estate. Everything else, such as your clothing and furnishings, will generally go directly to your spouse when you die, unless another heir or the executor of your estate can prove to the court that there's a reason it shouldn't.
  
  

Bequests

• South Carolina allows you to bequeath your tangible personal property in one of two ways. You can mention each item specifically in your will or you can attach a written list to your will, enumerating everything and telling the probate court who you want to receive it. The attached list doesn't need the signatures of witnesses as your will does, but it does have to be signed by you. Items you bequeath either way become part of your probate estate and do not pass directly to your spouse, if you're married. If you're not married and don't make a list of bequests, your items of tangible personal property become part of your overall estate.