Feb 1, 2011 12:00 PM

A profile of the estates of five billionaires who died in 2010

By Ivan Taback & Yvonne M. Perez-Zarraga

Jan. 1, 2010 marked a day that most trusts-and-estates practitioners never thought they would see and one they had repeatedly told their clients would never come. On that day, the door opened for the heirs of some of the wealthiest individuals in the United States to receive billions of dollars worth of inherited assets entirely estate tax-free. The passage of the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010 (the Act) on Dec. 17, 2010 reinstated the estate tax for 2011 and 2012, with an exemption of $5 million and a 35 percent tax rate. However, the Act also retroactively applied this exemption and estate tax rate to estates of individuals who died in 2010, but included an option to elect out of the retroactive estate tax system and use a carryover basis. Executors of the estates of the super-rich who died during 2010 will most likely avail themselves of this opt-out provision and thereby enjoy the benefits of the 2010 repeal. As a result, the federal government will face a loss of an estimated $8.75 billion in estate tax revenue that would have been generated by the deaths of merely five out of the United States' approximate 400 billionaires, who died during 2010 (putting aside for a moment the additional millions of estate tax dollars lost as the result of the deaths of other high-profile, wealthy Americans, such as author J.D. Salinger and Taco Bell founder Glen Bell).

We profile five billionaires who died in 2010 and whose estates escaped the federal estate tax: Mary Janet Morse Cargill, a member of the family that owns Cargill, Inc., an international producer and marketer of food, agricultural and industrial products and services; Dan L. Duncan, a self-made oil magnate, who grew up in poverty in rural Texas and died owning almost 50,000 miles of oil and gas pipelines; Walter H. Shorenstein, a California real estate developer who started with $1,000 and died worth over $1 billion; George “The Boss” Steinbrenner, beloved owner of arguably the world's most famous and successful athletic team, the New York Yankees; and John W. Kluge, a German immigrant who built his Metromedia television empire from scratch and later sold it for billions.

Topics of Interest

Estate Tax	Donor Advised Funds
GSTs	Family Offices
Private Foundations	Life Insurance
2010 Tax Act News	Industry Trends Surveys

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Topics of Interest

Estate Tax	Donor Advised Funds
GSTs	Family Offices
Private Foundations	Life Insurance
2010 Tax Act News	Industry Trends Surveys

E-Newsletter Signup

2011 Trust Glossary

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50 Years Ago This Month

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50 years ago, in May 1962, we featured articles such as: "Future of Canadian Trusteeship" by Arthur H. Mingay", "Training Trust Employees" by Ian M. Marr, "What is a Trust Officer?" by Eric J. Brown, and "Selling Services" by Donald I. Webb.

Conrad Teitell's Guide to Tax Benefits For Charitable Gifts

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