Article on Using Equity to Aid a Power of Appointment that Fails to Refer to the Power

Kenneth W. Kingma recently published an Article entitled, Using Equity to Aid the Exercise of a Power of Appointment that Fails to Specifically Refer to the Power, 51 Real Prop. Tr. & Est. L.J. 457 (2017). Provided below is an abstract of the Article:

An estate plan today often grants a power of appointment that contains a specific reference requirement, which requires the donee of the power to specifically refer to the power when exercising it. Sometimes a dispute arises over whether an attempted exercise of a power of appointment satisfied a specific reference requirement. Such disputes often involve a blanket exercise clause in the donee’s estate plan that attempts to exercise all of the donee’s powers of appointment. This Article examines the common law equitable rule that aids an attempted exercise of a power of appointment by not requiring rigid compliance with a specific reference requirement. This Article also examines how three Restatements of Property and the Uniform Powers of Appointment Act have summarized and applied the equitable rule.