David Riedel, of Adler Pollock & Sheehan P.C., has made available for download his article, “Add Estate Planning Flexibility With Powers of Appointment,” published in JDSUPRA. The abstract is as follows:
The best laid plans can go awry. Consider the estate plan you may have carefully crafted by taking into account the needs of your family members. After you’re gone, events may transpire that you hadn’t anticipated or couldn’t have reasonably foreseen. For example, a grandchild may suffer a severe disability or creditors may come after your adult child’s fortune.
Of course, there’s no way of predicting the future, but you can supplement your existing estate plan with a trust provision giving a designated beneficiary a “power of appointment” over some or all of the trust property. Essentially, this person will have the discretion to change distributions from the trust or even add or subtract beneficiaries.
Wealth Strategies Journal 