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Partnership. The need to manage Mrs. Erickson’s assets existed
early. Karen had been assisting her mother for years with her
financial affairs. Despite the need to assist Mrs. Erickson, the
partners did not immediately fund the Partnership when they
executed the partnership agreement. Meanwhile, Mrs. Erickson’s
health continued to decline. It was only after Mrs. Erickson had
been admitted to the hospital with pneumonia, two days before she
died, that the partners finally completed their transfers. While
we acknowledge that a few months’ delay is not a long time in
absolute terms, the months’ delay here was significant as it came
as Mrs. Erickson’s health was declining and ultimately resulted
in the family members’ finalizing the transfers to the
Partnership while Mrs. Erickson was dying in the hospital. The
haste with which they were able to transfer the assets shortly
before Mrs. Erickson died belies the estate’s argument that the
parties needed time to transfer their assets and the delay was
out of the partners’ control. Despite Mrs. Erickson being an
octogenarian in declining medical health, the parties waited
until the prospect of her death loomed to finish the transaction
and make sure the partnership affairs were in order.
The estate was financially dependent on the Partnership and
needed approximately $200,000 to help pay its liabilities. We
are unpersuaded by the estate’s arguments that Mrs. Erickson’s
death was unforeseen and a decline in the stock market caused her
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