Estate of Mary Catherine IX Gaynor - Page 8




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               Absent express language in a POA providing otherwise and               
          particularly in light of Estate of Antone v. Staphos, supra, and            
          the persuasive analysis contained therein, we believe that the              
          Supreme Court of Connecticut would conclude that under the Act a            
          general POA does not include the power to make an irrevocable               
          transfer of a principal’s property without consideration.                   
               On brief, petitioner alleges that decedent expressly                   
          authorized and intended decedent’s attorneys-in-fact to make                
          gifts of decedent’s property and that under Estate of Pruitt v.             
          Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2000-287, and Estate of Bronston v.                
          Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1988-510, the transfers made by                    
          decedent’s attorneys-in-fact should be treated as irrevocable               
          gifts.                                                                      
               In Estate of Pruitt and Estate of Bronston, we concluded               
          that Oregon and New Jersey law, respectively, did not necessarily           
          prohibit attorneys-in-fact from making gifts in appropriate                 
          circumstances, and we held that the POAs in those cases contained           
          express language broad enough to authorize the attorneys-in-fact            
          to make irrevocable gifts.  In those cases, the taxpayers also              
          established that the decedents intended for their attorneys-in-             
          fact to continue with a pattern of gift giving that had been                
          established by the taxpayer and that the attorneys-in-fact had              
          not committed fraud, abuse, or self-dealing with respect to the             








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