Cy Pres

Cy pres (from an old French phrase meaning "as near as possible") is a doctrine rooted in the idea that a donor's charitable intent should be honored even when circumstances make the original plan impossible. If a testator left funds to eradicate a disease that is subsequently eradicated, or to support an institution that no longer exists, a court may invoke cy pres to redirect the gift to a sufficiently similar purpose rather than returning assets to the donor's estate.

For wealthy families making large charitable gifts — particularly through trusts or bequests intended to fund specific institutions or causes — cy pres is a reminder that charitable structures should be drafted with flexibility in mind. A gift document that narrowly specifies a single recipient with no successor language can become a legal puzzle if that recipient dissolves or changes its mission substantially.

A hypothetical donor leaves an illustrative $10 million bequest to fund a specific university's oceanography department. Decades later, the university closes that department entirely. A court applying cy pres might redirect the funds to a comparable oceanographic research program at another institution, guided by evidence of what the donor valued.

A common confusion is believing cy pres applies automatically or quickly — in practice, it often requires litigation and can take years to resolve. Donors are frequently advised to include "gift-over" provisions naming alternative recipients, reducing the likelihood that courts need to intervene. A qualified estate planning attorney should review all major charitable gift documents with this contingency in mind.