1. The act of appointing; designation of a person to hold an office or discharge a trust.

He erred by the appointment of unsuitable men.

2. The state of being appointed to a service or office; an office to which one is

appointed; station; position.

the appointment of treasurer

3. Stipulation; agreement; the act of fixing by mutual agreement.

4. An arrangement for a meeting; an engagement.

They made an appointment to meet at six.

I'm leaving work early because I have a doctor's appointment.

5. Decree; direction; established order or constitution.

To submit to the divine appointments.

According to the appointment of the priests. --Ezra vi. 9.

6. (law) The exercise of the power of designating (under a power of appointment) a person to enjoy
an estate or other specific property; also, the instrument by which the designation is made.

7. (government) The assignment of a person by an official to perform a duty, such as a presidential

appointment of a judge to a court.

8. (now in the plural) Equipment, furniture. quotations ▼

9. (US) A honorary part or exercise, as an oration, etc., at a public exhibition of a college

to have an appointment.

A power of appointment is a term most frequently used in the law of wills to

describe the ability of the testator (the person writing the will) to select a person who will
be given the authority to dispose of certain property under the will. Although any person
can exercise this power at any time during their life, its use is rare outside of a will. The
power is divided into two broad categories:general powers of
appointment and special powers of appointment. The holder of a power of
appointment differs from the trustee of a trust in that the former has no obligation to
manage the property for the generation of income, but need only distribute it.

A general power of appointment is defined for federal estate tax purposes in

the Internal Revenue Code §2041.[1] A general power of appointment is one which allows
the holder of the power to appoint to himself, his estate, his creditors, or the creditors of his or her estate
the right to have the beneficial use and enjoyment of certain property covered by the power of
appointment. The holder of a general power of appointment is treated for estate tax purposes as if he or
she is the owner of the property subject to the power, whether or not the power is exercised. Thus, the
property which is subject to the power is includable in the power holder's estate for estate tax purposes.

A general power of appointment is a key element of a type of marital deductiontax law as prescribed
in Internal Revenue Code §2056(b)(5). It is a trust that qualifies for the marital deduction, provided that
the surviving spouse is given the income at least annually and the surviving spouse has a general power
of appointment over the trust property remaining at his death.

Most general powers of appointment are exercisable under a will. The holder of the power refers to the
document creating the power in his or her will and designates who among the permissible objects of the
power should receive the property. The power could be exercised by creating further trusts.

If the power of appointment is not exercised, the default provision of the document that created the power
takes over.

A special power of appointment allows the recipient to distribute the designated property among a
specified group or class of people, not including donee, donee's estate, creditors of donee, or creditors of
donee's estate.[2] For example, a testator might grant his brother the special power to distribute property
among the testator's three children. The brother would then have the authority to choose which of the
testator's children gets which property. Unlike a general power of appointment, the refusal of the
appointed party to exercise a specific power of appointment causes the designated property to revert as a
gift to the members of a group or a class.

A special power of appointment may be exclusive or nonexclusive. If exclusive, the donee can appoint all
the property to one or more members of the class of permissible appointees to the exclusion of the other
members of the class. If nonexclusive, the donee must appoint some property to each object. [3]

Special powers of appointment also appear in the context of a trust and are primarily used to reduce
liability for generation-skipping transfer tax, or to provide asset protection trust features without fraudulent
conveyance liability. Such trusts are referred to as SPA Trusts.