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the shares in the closely held corporation were transferred to
the husbands so that in the event Albert, Gregory, or James
predeceased his wife, MBI would purchase the shares and provide
the surviving spouse liquidity. This testimony is not supported
by the facts.
Upon the death of Gregory, MBI did not redeem all his
shares. Rather, Loretta inherited the shares, and none of those
shares was sold to MBI until after Loretta reached a conditional
agreement with Albert for the purchase of enough of his shares to
equalize their ownership interests. Although Loretta testified
that the MBI shares "had absolutely no value" to her, it is
evident from Loretta's retention of almost twice the amount of
shares initially transferred through her by decedent, and by
Loretta's agreement with Albert for the purchase of more shares,
that, contrary to her testimony, Loretta preferred owning MBI
stock to cash. The objective evidence does not support the
purported reason for the stock transfers between the spouses.
Viewed as a whole, the evidence shows the daughters-in-law
were merely intermediate recipients, and that decedent intended
to transfer the stock to her lineal descendants who were
committed to continuing the operation of the funeral home
business.
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