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with her parents, who were concerned about the size of their
estates. Ms. Thompson also testified that when decedent
delivered the powers of attorney to her, decedent never indicated
that Ms. Thompson was prohibited from taking certain acts and
decedent gave no specific instructions to Ms. Thompson. Since
decedent was told by her attorney, Mr. Walker, that such powers
of attorney authorized Ms. Thompson to do whatever decedent could
do with her own property, and since each of the powers of
attorney contained a general grant of power that would appear to
a nonlawyer to be consistent with Mr. Walker’s statement to
decedent, we do not find it surprising that decedent did not
discuss specifically with Ms. Thompson whether Ms. Thompson had
the power to continue the annual gifts to decedent’s family.
The testimony of decedent’s attorney, Mr. Walker, lends
support to petitioner’s argument. Mr. Walker testified that,
when the December 22, 1987, power was executed, “my words were to
her that ‘this will allow your daughter to do anything that you
can do.’” With respect to the March 12, 1992, powers, Mr. Walker
testified: “The intent was that the agent under [the power]
could do anything that [decedent] could do.” Mr. Walker further
testified that when he presented the March 12, 1992, powers to
decedent for execution, he recalled “using the words ‘this will
allow your daughter to do anything that you can do.’” When Mr.
Walker was asked on cross-examination whether decedent ever told
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