Gifts violated terms of power of attorney requiring the agent to respect terms of the principal’s will in making gifts. A power of attorney granted the agent, who was one of three beneficiaries of principal’s will, the authority to make gifts including to the agent but required that any gifts respect the terms of principal’s will. The agent sold the principal’s home and deposited the proceeds in a payable on death account of which the agent and one of the two other will beneficiaries were the beneficiaries. After the principal’s death, the third beneficiary of the will began a proceeding to have the sale proceeds returned to the estate. The beneficiary prevailed and the Missouri intermediate appellate court affirmed, finding that the opening of the payable on death account was the making of a gift even though the principal was the owner of the account and that opening the account exceeded the agent’s authority because doing so dramatically decreased the interest of the third beneficiary of the principal’s will. In re Estate of Qualls, 436 S.W.3d 743 (Mo. Ct. App. 2014).
Special thanks to William LaPiana (Professor of Law, New York Law School) for bringing this case to my attention.
