Connecticut General Statutes 45a-491 – Statutory rule against perpetuities
(a) A nonvested property interest is invalid unless: (1) When the interest is created, it is certain to vest or terminate no later than twenty-one years after the death of an individual then alive; or (2) the interest either vests or terminates within ninety years after its creation.
Terms Used In Connecticut General Statutes 45a-491
- Precedent: A court decision in an earlier case with facts and law similar to a dispute currently before a court. Precedent will ordinarily govern the decision of a later similar case, unless a party can show that it was wrongly decided or that it differed in some significant way.
- Property: means anything that may be the subject of ownership, whether real or personal and whether legal or equitable, or any interest therein. See Connecticut General Statutes 45a-499c
(b) A general power of appointment not presently exercisable because of a condition precedent is invalid unless: (1) When the power is created, the condition precedent is certain to be satisfied or become impossible to satisfy no later than twenty-one years after the death of an individual then alive; or (2) the condition precedent either is satisfied or becomes impossible to satisfy within ninety years after its creation.
(c) A nongeneral power of appointment or a general testamentary power of appointment is invalid unless: (1) When the power is created, it is certain to be irrevocably exercised or otherwise to terminate no later than twenty-one years after the death of an individual then alive; or (2) the power is irrevocably exercised or otherwise terminates within ninety years after its creation.
(d) In determining whether a nonvested property interest or a power of appointment is valid under subdivision (1) of subsection (a), (b) or (c) of this section, the possibility that a child will be born to an individual after the individual’s death is disregarded.
(e) If, in measuring a period from the creation of a trust or other property arrangement, language in a governing instrument (1) seeks to disallow the vesting or termination of any interest or trust beyond, (2) seeks to postpone the vesting or termination of any interest or trust until, or (3) seeks to operate in effect in any similar fashion upon, the later of (A) the expiration of a period of time not exceeding twenty-one years after the death of the survivor of specified lives in being at the creation of the trust or other property arrangement or (B) the expiration of a period of time that exceeds or might exceed twenty-one years after the death of the survivor of lives in being at the creation of the trust or other property arrangement, that language is inoperative to the extent it produces a period of time that exceeds twenty-one years after the death of the survivor described in subparagraph (A) of this subsection. Nothing in this subsection shall affect the validity of the other provisions of the trust or other property arrangement or of the governing instrument.
(f) With respect to any trust created on or after January 1, 2020, this section and sections 45a-492 to 45a-495, inclusive, shall apply to a nonvested property interest or power of appointment contained in a trust by substituting “eight hundred years” in place of “ninety years” in each place such term appears in this section and sections 45a-492 to 45a-495, inclusive, unless the terms of the trust expressly require that all beneficial interests in the trust vest or terminate within a lesser period.