As used in the Uniform Powers of Appointment Act:

Ask a will, trust or estate question, get an answer ASAP!
Thousands of highly rated, verified estate & trust lawyers.
Click here to chat with a lawyer about your rights.

A. “appointee” means a person to which a powerholder makes an appointment of appointive property;

B. “appointive property” means the property or property interest subject to a power of appointment;

C. “blanket-exercise clause” means a clause in an instrument that exercises a power of appointment and is not a specific-exercise clause. “Blanket-exercise clause” includes a clause that:

(1)     expressly uses the words “any power” in exercising any power of appointment the powerholder has;

(2)     expressly uses the words “any property” in appointing any property over which the powerholder has a power of appointment; or

(3)     disposes of all property subject to disposition by the powerholder; D. “donor” means a person that creates a power of appointment;

E. “exclusionary power of appointment” means a power of appointment exercisable in favor of any one or more of the permissible appointees to the exclusion of the other permissible appointees;

F. “general power of appointment” means a power of appointment exercisable in favor of the powerholder, the powerholder’s estate, a creditor of the powerholder or a creditor of the powerholder’s estate;

G. “gift-in-default clause” means a clause identifying a taker in default of appointment;

H. “impermissible appointee” means a person that is not a permissible appointee; I. “instrument” means a record;

J. “nongeneral power of appointment” means a power of appointment that is not a general power of appointment;

K. “permissible appointee” means a person in whose favor a powerholder may exercise a power of appointment;

L. “person” means an individual; an estate; a trust; a business or nonprofit entity; a public corporation; a government or governmental subdivision, agency or instrumentality; or another legal entity;

M. “power of appointment” means a power that enables a powerholder acting in a nonfiduciary capacity to designate a recipient of an ownership interest in or another power of appointment over the appointive property. “Power of appointment” does not include a power of attorney;

N. “powerholder” means a person in which a donor creates a power of appointment; O. “presently exercisable power of appointment” means a power of appointment exercisable by the powerholder at the relevant time. “Presently exercisable power of appointment”:

(1)     includes a power of appointment not exercisable until the occurrence of a specified event, the satisfaction of an ascertainable standard or the passage of a specified time only after:

(a) the occurrence of the specified event;

(b) the satisfaction of the ascertainable standard; or

(c) the passage of the specified time; and

(2)     does not include a power exercisable only at the powerholder’s death; P. “record” means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form;

Q. “specific-exercise clause” means a clause in an instrument that specifically refers to and exercises a particular power of appointment;

R. “taker in default of appointment” means a person that takes all or part of the appointive property to the extent the powerholder does not effectively exercise the power of appointment; and

S. “terms of the instrument” means the manifestation of the intent of the maker of the instrument regarding the instrument’s provisions as expressed in the instrument or as may be established by other evidence that would be admissible in a legal proceeding.