Also known as: donors of the power of appointment · donor · power donor
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
An individual who creates or reserves a power of appointment over property. The donor designates the donee who may select the ultimate recipients of the appointive property and may impose limits on the exercise of that authority.
Doris Duffy creates a trust and grants her daughter Deanna a general power of appointment exercisable by will over the trust assets. Deanna's will appoints the assets to her son Dylan, but Dylan predeceases Deanna and leaves surviving descendants. Because Doris qualifies as the donor of the power of appointment exercised by Deanna's will, the anti-lapse statute creates a substitute gift to Dylan's descendants.
Dwight Dorsey gives an engagement ring to Denise Donovan in anticipation of their wedding. When the marriage never occurs, Denise returns the ring. The donor's intent that the gift occur only upon completion of the marriage controls the outcome.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Dixon Foods executive Dylan Duffy donates sperm to a recipient under Kansas law. No written agreement preserves his parental rights. The child is born and the recipient raises the child alone. Dylan has no legal parental status.
Diana Delgado donates gametes for use in assisted reproduction. Years later a parentage action is filed. Genetic testing cannot be ordered to establish that Diana is a parent because she acted solely as a donor.
The donor of the power of appointment is the person who creates or reserves the power over property subject to the donor's disposition.
Supporting sources
Under Unif. Prob. Code § 2-603(b), when a devisee fails to survive and the devisee is a descendant of a grandparent or stepchild of the donor of a power of appointment exercised by the testator's will, a substitute gift may arise in favor of the devisee's surviving descendants.
Supporting sources
The donor creates the power and supplies the appointive property. The donee receives the authority to designate recipients but does not own the property outright.
Supporting sources