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From: Cryptoengineer <petertrei@gmail.com>
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Subject: Re: Longest plan
Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2024 08:23:59 -0500
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On 11/20/2024 4:04 AM, Charles Packer wrote:
> On Wed, 20 Nov 2024 04:05:21 -0000 (UTC), Keith F. Lynch wrote:
> 
>> I was just reading about the fact that Ben Franklin had a trust fund he
>> intended to be liquidated 200 years after his death.  And it was.
>>
>> That makes me wonder what was the slowest plan that has ever been
>> successfully carried out according to schedule.
> 
> I learned about Franklin's plan for the first time when I saw
> an article about it in a New York Times microfilm of
> 1900-1910 issues. For an attempt to establish a longer one,
> check out
> https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/future/trust-issues
> Did you mean specifically a financial instrument? That idea is
> called a "Methusaleh trust", I once read somewhere,though I couldn't find
> anything online right now about the concept.

"Perpetuities", (legal instruments without an endpoint) are generally
now forbidden. Usually they are now limited to 21 years after the
death of some living person named in the contract.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_against_perpetuities

In practical terms, this limits such instruments to around 100 years.
For example, Disney has an agreement with the state of Florida
which grants certain privileges until 21 years after the
death of the last survivor of the descendants of
King Charles III at the time the agreement was made.

But there are perpetual contracts from before the law changed
which  are still valid. The most famous example is a Dutch
water bond issued in 1648 which is still paying interest.

https://dailyinvestor.com/world/32751/the-worlds-oldest-bond-still-paying-interest-375-years-later/

If there are plans still being executed for longer than that,
I don't know of them. There are certainly older institutions
still in operation (the Japanese Royal Family, for example),
but I don't know if that counts.

pt