Rule Against Perpetuities - Statutory Modification

Statutory Modification

Many jurisdictions have statutes that either cancel out the rule entirely or change it to make clearer as to the period of time and persons who are affected by it.

• In the United Kingdom, dispositions of property subject to the rule before 14 July 1964 remain subject to the rule. The Perpetuities and Accumulations Act 1964 provides for the effect of the rule of interests created thereafter. This act codifies the "wait and see" doctrine developed by courts.

• In the Republic of Ireland, the rule is abolished as of 1 December 2009.

• The states of the United States have differing approaches.
  • Some states follow the "wait-and-see approach," or "second look doctrine," and/or apply the "cy pres doctrine". Under the wait and see approach, the validity of a suspect future interest is determined on the basis of facts as they now exist at the end of the measuring life, and not at the time the interest was created. Under the cy pres doctrine, if the interest does violate the rule against perpetuities, the court may reform the grant in a way that does not violate the rule, and will reduce any offensive age contingency to 21 years.
  • Other states have adopted the Uniform Statutory Rule Against Perpetuities (or some variant of it) which extends the waiting period typically to 90 years after creation of the interest.
  • Many states have repealed the rule in its entirety, or extended the vesting period of the wait-and-see approach for an extremely long period of time (in Florida, for example, up to 360 years for trusts).