Rose v. United States

511 F.2d 259, 35 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 75
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedApril 11, 1975
DocketNo. 73-3952
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 511 F.2d 259 (Rose v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rose v. United States, 511 F.2d 259, 35 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 75 (5th Cir. 1975).

Opinion

GOLDBERG, Circuit Judge:

Catherine Myers Rose, plaintiff below, brought this tax refund suit in the district court to secure a refund of $5,265.07 in estate taxes which she paid under protest as representative of her decedent husband’s estate. The district court entered summary judgment for the Government, and Rose appeals.

The dispute centers about the necessity to include in the decedent’s gross estate the value of three life insurance policies held by the decedent as sole trustee of three trusts established by his brother for the benefit of the decedent’s children. The Commissioner maintains that at the time of the decedent’s death he possessed incidents of ownership in the policies, rendering the policy proceeds includable in his gross estate under 26 U.S.C. § 2042(2). Appellant Rose contends that the decedent trustee possessed no such incidents of ownership, so that taxation is inappropriate. Finding the issues resolved in favor of the Government by our opinion in Estate of Lump-kin v. Commissioner, 5 Cir. 1973, 474 F.2d 1092, we affirm.

I

In October, 1954, Lester H. Rose, the brother of decedent Warren A. Rose, created three separate irrevocable trusts and funded each with an initial $100.00. Each of the decedent’s three children was made the sole beneficiary of one of the trusts, and the decedent was appointed trustee of each trust. Each trust was to terminate when its beneficiary reached age 25, but the trustee was empowered to release trust income in his discretion after the beneficiary reached age 18. The trust instruments delegated broad administrative powers to the trustee to manage and invest the trust property.

In May, 1955, the decedent applied, as trustee of each of the three trusts, for three separate life insurance policies on his own life. The decedent, as trustee of each of the respective trusts, was made owner and beneficiary of each policy. So far as the record discloses, all premi[261]*261urns on each of the three policies were paid out of the income or corpus of the respective trusts. Under the terms of each of the insurance contracts, the decedent-trustee retained the power to convert the policies on a specified date from whole life insurance either to limited payment life insurance or to endowment insurance. The decedent was also empowered to withdraw dividend accumulations or surrender any dividend additions for their cash value (provided that such accumulations or additions were not required as security for a loan), or to obtain loans on the policy from the insurer, up to the amount of the cash surrender value plus dividend additions and dividend accumulations. If interest due the insurer on such loans were allowed to accumulate in excess of the remaining available loan value, the policy would terminate. No provision in the trust instruments prohibited the decedent from exercising these powers provided in the insurance policies. On the contrary, as the district court found, the decedent-trustee possessed the right and power to alter the time and manner of enjoyment of the policy proceeds through his authority to withdraw dividends, obtain loans, or cancel or convert the policies.

The decedent died in October, 1966.

II

Section 2042(2) of the Estate Tax Code provides in pertinent part that,

The value of the gross estate shall include the value of all property—
(2) To the extent of the amount receivable ... as insurance under policies on the life of the decedent with respect to which the decedent possessed at his death any of the incidents of ownership, exercisable either alone or in conjunction with any other person.

The sole question here is whether the decedent possessed “any of the incidents of ownership” in the insurance policies on his life which he held as trustee. We conclude that he did.

In Estate of Lumpkin v. Commissioner, 5 Cir. 1973, 474 F.2d 1092, the employer of the decedent covered a number of its employees, the decedent included, under a group term life insurance policy. According to its terms, decedent Lump-kin’s dependents were entitled to death benefits consisting of a modest lump sum, followed by a series of monthly payments (equal to half the decedent’s monthly wages) which were to continue over a period determined by Lumpkin’s tenure with his employer. The payments were to go to the decedent’s wife; or if she were not living, then to his dependent children; or if no children survived, then to his parents. Decedent Lumpkin had no power to change the beneficiaries under the policy. The policy did, however, provide a settlement option which would to some extent defer a surviving wife’s receipts. Under this option, however, any amounts which the decedent’s wife would have received during her life under the standard settlement provision but which were not paid to her during her life under the elected option, would be paid to her estate upon her death. With the agreement of the employer and insurer, the decedent was permitted to design further alternative settlement patterns, so long as they did not alter the share of the proceeds due any policy-designated beneficiary. Thus, decedent Lumpkin could not change or prefer beneficiaries under the insurance plan, but he could affect the timing of benefits which any beneficiary or his estate would be entitled to. “In short the right to elect optional modes of settlement gave Lumpkin a degree of control over the time when the proceeds of the policy would be enjoyed and nothing more.” 474 F.2d at 1095.

The question addressed and resolved by this court in Lumpkin was whether the decedent’s right to alter the time of enjoyment of the insurance proceeds constituted an “incident of ownership” within the meaning of § 2042(2). In resolving this question, we recognized — as has [262]*262the Second Circuit1 — that “by enacting § 2042 Congress intended to give life insurance policies estate tax treatment roughly equivalent to that accorded other types of property under related sections of the Code,” e. g., §§ 2036 (transfers with retained life estate); 2037 (transfers taking effect at death); 2038 (revocable transfers); 2041 (powers of appointment). 474 F.2d at 1095. Judging from the meager legislative history2 and reading these enumerated provisions in pari materia, we concluded that “by using the ‘incidents of ownership’ term Congress was attempting to tax the value of life insurance proceeds over’which the insured at death still possessed a substantial degree of control.” 474 F.2d at 1095.3 Drawing then from cases decided under the predecessors of kindred §§ 2036 and 2038,4 we concluded that “because the control it affords is substantial, ... a right to alter the time of enjoyment such as that conferred upon Lumpkin by the optional modes of settlement provision in this case is an ‘incident of ownership’ under § 2042.” 474 F.2d at 1097.

Appellant Rose does not seriously argue here, nor could we be persuaded, that the kind of control exercisable by her husband before his death was significantly different from the type of the control open to the decedent in

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511 F.2d 259, 35 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 75, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rose-v-united-states-ca5-1975.