Estate Planning’s Most Powerful Tool: Powers of Appointment Refreshed, Redefined, and Reexamined
One of the most versatile tools estate planners have at their disposal is the power of appointment. Despite its wide use, the benefits and limitations of the power of appointment are not widely understood. This Article discusses those benefits and limitations, and instructs how to use the power of appointment to achieve the intended disposition of the donor or testator, including drafting techniques for both general and special powers of appointment either exercisable presently or in the future. Finally, this Article discusses how to use powers of appointment to “decant” trust assets from one trust to another, reducing the tax consequences of trust dispositions.
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Mr. Blattmachr is a Principal in ILS Management, LLC and a retired member of Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy LLP in New York, NY and of the Alaska, California and New York Bars. He is recognized as one of the most creative trusts and estates lawyers in the country and is listed in The Best Lawyers in America. He has written and lectured extensively on estate and trust taxation and charitable giving.
Mr. Blattmachr graduated from Columbia University School of Law cum laude, where he was recognized as a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, and received his A.B. degree from Bucknell University, majoring in mathematics. He has served as a lecturer-in-law of the Columbia University School of Law and is an Adjunct Professor of Law at New York University Law School in its Masters in Tax Program (LLM). He is a former chairperson of the Trusts & Estates Law Section of the New York State Bar Association and of several committees of the American Bar Association. Mr. Blattmachr is a Fellow and a former Regent of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and past chair of its Estate and Gift Tax Committee. He is author or co-author of eight books and more than 500 articles on estate planning and tax topics.
Among professional activities, which are too numerous to list, Mr. Blattmachr has served as an Advisor on The American Law Institute, Restatement of the Law, Trusts 3rd; and as a Fellow of The New York Bar Foundation and a member of the American Bar Foundation.
Kim Kamin is a Principal at Gresham Partners, LLC, where she serves as Chief Wealth Strategist. In such capacity, Kim leads the firm's estate, wealth transfer, philanthropic, fiduciary planning and NextGen education activities, and works with individual clients. Her prior legal practice for many years involved all aspects of trust and estate planning, administration, and related dispute resolution. She advised families and closely held businesses on a wide array of wealth preservation, taxation and succession planning issues. She also served as counsel for guardianship and decedents’ estate administration, as well as for contested trust and estate matters. In addition, she provided counsel for the formation and operation of not-for-profit entities, both private foundations and public charities.
Jeffrey M. Bergman, Associate, Schiff Hardin LLP, Chicago, Illinois, and a member of the firm’s Private Clients, Trusts and Estates Group. His practice focuses on estate planning, charitable planning, and fiduciary income taxation. Mr. Bergman is an adjunct professor at the Northwestern University School of Law, Masters in Tax program, and earned his B.A. from Grinnell College and his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School.
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