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of the Estate of Ambrosina Blanche Lopes (decedent). The sole
issue for our consideration is whether fractional ownership
interests in realty held in a survivor's trust and in a qualified
terminal interest property (QTIP) marital trust should be
aggregated in order to determine whether discounts should apply
to those interests. At the time these motions were brought
before us, Estate of Mellinger v. Commissioner, 112 T.C. 26, 33
(1999), was pending before another division of this Court. The
parties agreed that the Estate of Mellinger opinion would likely
be determinative of the remaining issue in this case. All other
issues determined in the deficiency notice have been resolved.
Background
Decedent died on October 1, 1993. At the time of her death,
decedent had undivided interests in 21 separate California ranch
properties. These interests had been held in two trusts, a
survivor's trust and a QTIP marital trust, as established in a
1985 trust agreement between decedent and her husband, Joaquim C.
Lopes (Joaquim). Decedent's son, James W. Lopes (James), also
held undivided interests in some of the ranch properties.
Joaquim predeceased decedent in 1990. At that time, the
properties were allocated between the trusts according to the
agreement. The community property and separate property of
decedent were placed in the survivor's trust, while all of
Joaquim's community property was placed in the marital trust.
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