> I don't understand how you can attach strings (i.e. conditions ) on gifts, telling the receipt how they can or cannot use the gift. You do it with a contract

> I don't understand how you can attach strings (i.e. conditions ) on gifts, telling the receipt how they can or cannot use the gift. You do it with a contract, the same way you attach conditions on anything else in life. It's the obvious way, and it's done all the time. There are a lot of specific rules relating to specific contract terms you can or cannot agree to, specific conditions that might make the contract invalid, implicit clauses that may apply even if not explicitly stated, etc., that's not really relevant here. But in general, yes, absolutely, if you and someone else sign a document that says you'll do X, and they have to do Y, and there's no coercion or fraud, and neither X nor Y is something illegal, then yeah, you have to do X, and they have to do Y. It's hardly hyperbole to say our society is built on this notion. And "I give you a bunch of money and you do these specific things" is hardly an exotic form! > This would be akin to telling my dad that I will gift him a car for his birthday, but on the condition that he can never sell it or rent it out or re-gift it to his friend. Correct. Which is a thing you could do, and which people actually do all the time, sometimes with just a verbal contract, sometimes with more formal contracts. What's confusing or surprising about this? It's just how our society (and legal system) work. Why would you think you couldn't do it? Why would you think that people wouldn't do it?