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VIII. Executor’s Business Experience
Finally, we are unpersuaded by Mr. Renbarger’s assertion
that he lacked the necessary business education and experience to
liquidate over $6 million in assets to pay Federal and State
estate taxes and administrative expenses. There is no cause to
find an experienced executor incompetent to manage the affairs of
an estate where the executor is experienced in business. Estate
of Thomas v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2001-225 (executrix was not
a naive, incapacitated, elderly citizen but rather an experienced
businesswoman). In this case, Mr. Renbarger had sufficient
business expertise to act as the executor. He was a 99-percent
owner of Westgate Market Place Developers, L.L.C., and was
involved in numerous real estate transactions, including many
with the estate’s properties. We also note that Mr. Renbarger is
quick to allege his incompetence when it supports his argument
but was apparently content to rely substantially on his own
expertise when he assembled his “small team”, made up of his two
sons, a certified public accountant, and a nonpracticing real
estate broker,13 and, we assume, content to collect his nearly $1
million fee to date as an executor. In view of Mr. Renbarger’s
12(...continued)
return. The amount the estate could credit under sec.
2011(b)(2)(B) dropped, however, to 75 percent in 2002, 50 percent
in 2003, and 25 percent in 2004, which may have influenced the
estate’s decision to prefer paying State estate tax over Federal
estate tax.
13This individual was also Mr. Renbarger’s partner in
Westgate Market Place Developers, L.L.C.
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