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Vanderbilt Law Review

First Page

367

Abstract

Originally conceived prior to the enactment of the Statute of Uses as a means by which freehold legal interests in land might be devised, the power of appointment has maintained its prominent position in American society because of its utility in minimizing death taxes and injecting into dispositions of property an element of foresight otherwise unobtainable. Due to the immense popularity of powers of appointment as estate planning devices, statutory developments in the law of powers have been confined primarily to the tax field, with a resultant neglect of those areas of the law more tangentially related to powers of appointment. Not the least significant of these neglected areas is the field of creditors' rights or, more specifically, the rights of creditors of the donee of a power of appointment to reach the appointive assets in satisfaction of their claims. Only ten states and the District of Columbia have legislation on this subject, and only half of these jurisdictions have dealt effectively with the problems raised. Creditors whose claims are not protected by such statutes fall victim to the grossly inadequate provisions of the common law. It is the design of this Note to trace the common law and statutory development of the rights of creditors of a donee of a "general" power of appointment, and to discuss needed reform in terms of the merits of recent legislation.

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