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operations. Tamma Hatten worked only briefly for the True
companies and not in a management capacity, and her husband never
had more than a subordinate role in management of any of the True
companies. However, the True children (including Tamma Hatten
before her withdrawal) always owned equal percentage interests in
each True company, regardless of the degrees of skill and effort
required to manage the various businesses.
These facts suggest that Dave True’s testamentary objectives
were fulfilled, in large part, through lifetime transfers to his
children of interests in the True companies. The buy-sell
agreements ensured that those testamentary objectives were met by
restricting transfers outside the family. The equality of the
percentage interests, in spite of the different management
responsibilities borne by each child, indicates that the
transfers were based on family relationships, provided the
minimal threshold participation requirement continued to be
satisfied.
The True sons are now the only individual parties to most of
the True companies’ buy-sell agreements. Under the existing
agreements, a predeceasing brother’s interest would be sold to
his surviving brothers at tax book value, and would not pass to
his heirs. This assumes that the predeceasing brother had no
heirs who actively participated in the family business. The True
sons have discussed this “problem” with Mr. Harris and have
decided not to make any changes to the existing buy-sell
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