When it comes to free acquisition, it is generally accepted that a person who gives a certain benefit to someone, can burden that same benefit with some kind of duty, within the limits set by the law. However, the previously said does not indicate that the purpose of the burden is to set the counteraction to free acquisition, nor it is related to the restriction of freedom of acquisition, but to allowed modifications. One of the aforementioned modifications is a precatory provision, which, in addition to conditions and deadlines, has found its place in the Inheritance law. Its legal effect is reflected in the constitution of the burden to a person designated by the deceased person. The authors examine: the concept and the effects of the precatory provision in terms of its fulfillment, as well as the consequences that occur when the precatory provision is not fulfilled; who can be a subject when it comes to the precatory provision, if there are any legaly binding corelations between them, what kind of consequences the aforementioned brings with it; as well as where lies boundary of precatory provision in relation to similar institutes. Special attention has been paid to the national legislation, with the overview of the current provisions of the former republics of SFRY, Russia, Bulgaria, Austria and Germany, for the purpose of examining the extent to which the domestic legislation of the precatory provisions is similar, that is, how much it deviates from above- mentioned European legislations. Having in mind that the drafting of Serbian Civil Code is in progress, authors use the opportunity to point out certain shortcomings of the legal solutions of the precatory provisions and also to emphasize possible direction in which these provisions could be de lege ferenda composed.