Connecticut's 800-Year Rule Against Perpetuities
Connecticut allows trusts created on or after January 1, 2020 to last up to 800 years. This is not perpetual, but it is effectively so. At 25 years per generation, an 800-year trust spans 32 generations. No family fortune in human history has survived intact for that long.
The Statute
CGS 45a-491 codifies Connecticut’s version of the Uniform Statutory Rule Against Perpetuities. The basic rule, applicable to trusts created before January 1, 2020, provides two alternative tests for validity of a nonvested property interest:
- The interest must be certain to vest or terminate no later than 21 years after the death of an individual alive at the trust’s creation (the traditional common-law test); or
- The interest must actually vest or terminate within 90 years of creation (the wait-and-see alternative).
Subsection (f), added by PA 19-137 effective January 1, 2020, modified this framework for trusts created on or after that date. It substitutes “eight hundred years” for “ninety years” wherever the 90-year period appears in CGS 45a-491 through 45a-495. The common-law lives-in-being-plus-21-years test remains as an alternative, but the practical effect is that modern Connecticut trusts can last eight centuries.
The trust instrument can specify a shorter period. CGS 45a-491(f) applies “unless the terms of the trust expressly require that all beneficial interests in the trust vest or terminate within a lesser period.” Grantors who want a trust limited to, say, 100 or 200 years can include an express provision to that effect.
Why 800 Years Instead of Perpetual?
Roughly a dozen states have abolished the rule against perpetuities entirely, allowing trusts of unlimited duration. South Dakota, Nevada, Alaska, Delaware, and New Hampshire, among others, permit perpetual trusts. Connecticut chose a different path.
The 800-year period was a legislative compromise. It gives planners and families more than enough time for multi-generational wealth transfer while preserving the theoretical principle that property interests should eventually vest. As a practical matter, the distinction between 800 years and perpetual is academic; no trust will actually operate for 800 years without modification, decanting, or termination.
The choice also reflects a view that perpetual trusts raise long-term policy concerns: dead-hand control, concentration of wealth, and the accumulation of assets beyond any reasonable planning horizon. The 800-year limit addresses these concerns symbolically, if not practically.
Dynasty Trust Planning
The extended perpetuities period makes Connecticut a viable situs for dynasty trusts: irrevocable trusts designed to benefit multiple generations while minimizing transfer taxes at each generational level.
A dynasty trust works by keeping assets in trust rather than distributing them outright to each generation. When a beneficiary dies, the trust assets are not included in the beneficiary’s estate (assuming the trust is properly structured) because the beneficiary does not own them. The assets continue in trust for the next generation. Wealth passes from generation to generation without incurring estate tax at each transfer.
The key to dynasty trust planning is the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax exemption. The GST tax imposes a flat tax (currently 40% at the federal level) on transfers that skip a generation. But each individual has a GST exemption (equal to the federal basic exclusion amount, approximately $13.99 million in 2025) that can be allocated to trust transfers. Once the exemption is allocated, the trust and all future growth are permanently exempt from GST tax.
A dynasty trust funded with $13.99 million of GST-exempt assets, invested at a reasonable rate of return, can grow to extraordinary sums over multiple generations, all free of estate and GST tax. The 800-year perpetuities period gives this structure maximum room to operate.
Connecticut vs. Perpetual-Trust States
Families considering dynasty trusts sometimes choose states with no rule against perpetuities. The comparison to Connecticut involves several factors.
Trust duration. States like South Dakota and Nevada allow unlimited duration. Connecticut caps at 800 years. For practical purposes, the difference is negligible. No trust will operate unchanged for even a fraction of 800 years.
State income tax. South Dakota, Nevada, and Alaska have no state income tax. Connecticut does. For accumulation trusts (trusts that retain income rather than distributing it), the state income tax savings from a no-tax situs can be significant over time. This is Connecticut’s most meaningful competitive disadvantage.
Trust infrastructure. Delaware, South Dakota, and Nevada have deep, well-established trust industries with experienced corporate trustees, specialized courts, and extensive case law. Connecticut’s trust industry is growing, particularly since the 2020 reforms, but it has less of a track record with ultra-long-term trust administration.
Proximity and convenience. For clients in the northeastern United States, Connecticut offers geographic and legal proximity. Working with a Connecticut trustee is simpler for a New York or Massachusetts family than working with a South Dakota trustee, particularly when the trust holds Connecticut real property or closely held Connecticut businesses.
Comprehensive trust law. Connecticut’s CUTC, directed trust provisions, decanting act, and DAPT statute provide a modern, integrated legal framework. Families can create trusts in Connecticut that take advantage of all these tools without needing to coordinate across multiple jurisdictions.
Interaction with Decanting and Modification
The 800-year period interacts with Connecticut’s other trust modification tools. A trust created before January 1, 2020 (subject to the 90-year rule) could potentially be decanted under the Connecticut Uniform Trust Decanting Act (CGS 45a-545a et seq.) into a new trust created on or after January 1, 2020, which would be subject to the 800-year rule. Whether this extension of the perpetuities period is valid depends on the specific terms of the original trust, the scope of the trustee’s decanting authority, and the applicable tax rules (particularly GST tax considerations).
Similarly, a nonjudicial settlement agreement under CGS 45a-499k might be used to modify certain trust terms, though it likely cannot extend the perpetuities period beyond what the law in effect at the trust’s creation would allow.
Practical Drafting Considerations
Practitioners drafting dynasty trusts under the 800-year rule should consider:
- Trust protectors. A trust that may last for centuries needs a governance mechanism that adapts to changing circumstances. Trust protectors with authority to modify terms, change situs, and replace trustees are essential.
- Decanting provisions. Express authority for the trustee to decant the trust into a new trust with updated terms provides additional flexibility.
- Governing law provisions. The trust should include a mechanism for changing the governing law if another jurisdiction’s laws become more favorable.
- Distribution standards. Broad discretionary standards (rather than mandatory distribution provisions) give future trustees flexibility to respond to beneficiaries’ varying needs across generations.
- Investment flexibility. Restrictions on investments that make sense today may be obsolete in 50 years. The trust instrument should give future trustees broad investment authority.
- Perpetuities savings clause. Despite the 800-year period, a savings clause that terminates all interests and distributes trust property no later than the end of the permissible perpetuities period protects against inadvertent violations.
The 800-year rule is not, by itself, a reason to create a dynasty trust. The decision depends on the size of the estate, the family’s goals, the available GST exemption, and the trade-offs involved in tying up wealth in a long-term irrevocable structure. But for families with substantial wealth and a multi-generational perspective, Connecticut now offers a competitive framework for this type of planning.
For more on the statutory framework, see our Connecticut Uniform Trust Code overview. For related planning tools, see trust decanting, domestic asset protection trusts, and irrevocable trusts in Connecticut.
The generation-skipping transfer tax exemption is central to dynasty trust planning. For the current federal and Connecticut estate tax exemptions and how they interact, see the Connecticut estate tax guide and federal-CT estate tax interaction.