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decedent’s children. The letter expressed some reasons
for forming WCB Holdings and BFLP. The letter
explained that the entities provided, among other
things, a method for giving assets to decedent’s family
members without deterring them from working hard and
becoming educated, protection of his estate from
frivolous lawsuits and creditors, greater flexibility
than trusts, a means to limit expenses if any lawsuits
should arise, tutelage with respect to managing the
family’s assets, and tax benefits with respect to
transfer taxes.
Mr. Fullmer was decedent’s estate planning attorney, see majority
op. p. 12, and among the reasons set forth by decedent for
forming WCB Holdings, LLC (WCB Holdings) and the Bongard Family
Limited Partnership (BFLP) are family gifts and the achievement
of transfer tax benefits (read, “savings”). The transfer tax
savings result from the loss in value (giving rise to a valuation
discount) that petitioner claims accompanied decedent’s
sequential packaging of (1) his Empak, Inc. (Empak), stock in WCB
Holdings and (2) his WCH Holdings Class B units in BFLP. The
lost value, of course, was not beyond reclamation: It would be
restored if BFLP and WCB Holdings were unpacked, which seems
likely once decedent’s interests in the two entities passed
through decedent’s estate and the Empak shares became more
liquid. The transfer tax savings that decedent admitted were his
objective thus serve only to increase by the amount of those
savings (less, of course, transaction costs, such as lawyer’s
fees) the size of decedent’s estate passing into the hands of his
heirs. The achievement of transfer tax savings evidences
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