Estate of Antoinette Hartsell, Deceased, Donald C. Renbarger, Personal Representative - Page 11

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          constitutes the estate’s central argument that it exercised                 
          ordinary business care and prudence and could not, without undue            
          hardship, sell sufficient property to pay its Federal estate tax            
          by the payment due date.  The plan essentially involved selecting           
          five properties to sell, advertising and marketing those                    
          properties, and, once they were sold, selecting additional                  
          properties to sell.                                                         
               Mr. Renbarger chose to sell a mere five properties from an             
          estate composed of more than 60 properties.  He advertised the              
          properties by placing a single “for sale” sign on each with a               
          phone number.  Mr. Renbarger waited, no bids were received, and             
          the deadline, extended twice, passed without payment.  One person           
          contacted the estate regarding a property but expressed no                  
          interest upon hearing the asking price.  Mr. Renbarger did not              
          enlist the assistance of a professional real estate broker and              
          instead relied on his own expertise and that of a small team,               
          which included his two sons.                                                
               Mr. Renbarger attributes his lack of success in selling the            
          estate’s five properties to macroeconomic events including a                
          slowing economy, the national recession beginning March 2001, the           
          collapse of Enron, the State and national declines in real                  
          income, the evaporation of stock investor wealth, and even the              
          uncertainties of war in Afghanistan and Iraq and the events of              
          September 11, 2001.  We are unconvinced by Mr. Renbarger’s                  
          argument, particularly considering that most of the events                  




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Last modified: May 25, 2011