Emmertz v. Cherry

Hunstein, Justice.

Prior to his death in September 1997, Lawrence Emmertz purchased three life insurance policies and named as the sole beneficiary his daughter, Sandra Emmertz Cherry. Cherry was also a beneficiary, along with her two brothers, of the residual estate under her father’s will. Because the testator had retained incidents of ownership in the life insurance policies, this nonprobate property was included in the value of his gross estate for Federal estate tax purposes. See § 2042 (2) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (“IRC”), 26 USC § 2001 et seq. Lawrence Emmertz, Jr., the…