FundSvcs Community

We are administering a scholarship endowment fund that's been around a long time, whose donor has passed away. In the donor's will, he states that his personal representative is able to make changes to the scholarship criteria on his behalf.

Now that the personal representative himself is nearing end of life, he would like to assign his daughter to take his spot as the designated personal representative, in order that she would be able to continue to influence criteria if she chooses.

We would prefer to agree on a "set it and forget it" criteria with the current personal representative now, which will live on in perpetuity, and not allow a passing of the torch, but he's been resistant to that suggestion.

My question is, is he legally able to pass on his personal representative rights to another person?  Or are there law or rules that would prohibit him from designating his successor?

Gwen

The assertion made in the will that the personal representative can make changes on the donor's behalf depends on the original agreement itself. If the initial agreement does not say that the donor may transfer these rights to another person upon the donor's passing, the will doesn't matter. The possibility of a further successor being named is even more dubious. In general, when it comes to these matters, the law is opposed to "dead man's hand" control, and against perpetual interests. But you really need to speak to counsel to sort through the specifics of this situation.

Thanks for this, Isaac. I appreciate it!

Gwen