The rule against perpetuities : Final report : the rule against perpetuities

In the typical scenario of a will, which may gift certain property to be held in trust until the happening of a certain event, it must be certain that the property will absolutely vest in the entitled person or persons before twenty-one years has passed since the death of a person whose life is relevant to when the property will vest, and who was alive at the time of the testator’s death. [...] Plainly, a grandchild might reach the age of 25 more than 21 years after the death of the last of the testator’s children or grandchildren alive at the time of the testator’s death. [...] We note that the abolition of the rule against perpetuities will effect the abolition of the accumulations rule, to the extent there is one, by the elimination of a perpetuities period.25. [...] In some ways it is the effective generality of the rule that now occasions calls for its reform; it is impossible to draft around, even in contexts in which it ought not to apply.29 The purpose of the Rule has shifted somewhat, and cannot simply be attributed to the need to limit the duration of restrictions on the free use and exchange of property. [...] The second is to strike a fair balance between the desires of present absolute owners to regulate beyond their own mortality the enjoyment of their property in the years to come, and the wishes of those living tomorrow to have the same, or at least effective control over the enjoyment of property which they have inherited.