-32-
payment upon the trustee; not whether it is likely that the minor
beneficiary is to receive any present enjoyment of the property.
Id. at 80-81. Furthermore, we found no agreement or
understanding between the grantor, the trustees, and the
beneficiaries17 that the grandchildren would not exercise their
withdrawal rights following a contribution to the children's
trust. Id. at 77, 83.
In Estate of Cristofani the transfers at issue were the
transfers in trust to the secondary beneficiaries who had only
contingent remainder interests in the trusts. The interests in
issue in the instant case, however, are the interests of the
primary beneficiaries, whose interests are not contingent. Thus,
Estate of Christofani is distinguishable from the case at bar.
That distinction notwithstanding, we agree with respondent
that if the beneficiaries, trustees, and donor had an agreement
or understanding that limited the ability, in a legal sense, of
the beneficiaries to exercise their right to withdraw trust
corpus, then the beneficiaries may not have received gifts of a
present interest.
Respondent contends that there was an agreement between the
decedent, the trustees, and the beneficiaries that denied the
trust beneficiaries a present interest in the transfers. In
17 In Estate of Cristofani v. Commissioner, 97 T.C. 74
(1991), the children of the grantor were the trustees and also
the primary trust beneficiaries. The grandchildren of the
grantor were the children of the trustees and also were the
contingent remainder beneficiaries. Id. at 75-76.
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