Rule Against Perpetuities
The “rule against perpetuities” is often described as one of the most complicated legal rules ever!
It’s origin stems from the days of feudal England – some say as early as 1680 – when landowners often tried to control the use and disposition of property beyond the grave – a concept often referred to as control by the “dead hand.”
The rule against perpetuities was intended to prevent people from tying up property – both real and personal – for generation after generation. In feudal England, the practice was to put land in trust in perpetuity, with succeeding generations living off the land without actually owning it. The catalyst for this practice was the avoidance of certain taxes which were being levied upon the transfer of land upon the death of the owner. Perpetual trusts avoided the tax, but many people argue that the practice had the deleterious effect of concentrating large amounts of wealth among a few members of society.
The rule against perpetuities, then, was designed to insure that some person would actually own the land within a reasonable period of time after the death of the transferor. To accomplish that result, the rule stated that no interest in property would be valid unless it could be shown that the interest would vest, if at all, no later than 21 years after some life in being at the creation of the interest.
Although the rule appears to be straightforward, it has become one of the most complicated legal …