Estate of Paul C. Gribauskas - Page 18




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          In addition, an annuity contract will usually provide the owner             
          with specific rights during the period the agreement remains in             
          force.  The contract can generally be alienated and assigned, and           
          the owner can elect to name a beneficiary of the contract.                  
               In contrast, the estate emphasizes that a LOTTO prize is the           
          result of a $1 wager, not a substantial invested premium.  The              
          annual installments are derived from the income and investments             
          of the State, not from the corpus supplied by the purchaser.  The           
          winner’s age, gender, or health play no role in determining the             
          benefit level.  Additionally, the winner lacks any ability to               
          make choices regarding payment commencement, amount, duration, or           
          termination, and cannot assign the installments or elect a                  
          beneficiary to receive installments upon the winner’s death.                
               Having thus attempted to demonstrate that the lottery prize            
          does not resemble a typical annuity valued under actuarial                  
          tables, the estate then goes on to cite a variety of assets                 
          yielding payment streams which, according to the estate, are                
          valued not under section 7520 but rather by taking into account             
          the unique characteristics of and restrictions on the asset.  The           
          implicit invitation is that we determine that the installments              
          here are more analogous to these alternatives and that similar,             
          item-specific fair market principles should be used in the                  
          prize’s valuation.                                                          








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Last modified: May 25, 2011