EFTA00587834.pdf
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McDermott
Will&Emery
MEMORANDUM
Date:
August 14, 2012
To:
Leon D. Black
From:
Elyse G. Kirschner
Re:
The Amendment and Restatement of the Black 2006 Family Trust Agreement
Following is an explanation of the principal provisions of the Amendment
and Restatement of the Black 2006 Family Trust Agreement you asked us to prepare for
you and the anticipated tax consequences of certain of its provisions.
I.
The Black 2006 Family Trust
A.
Trust Fund
You were the creator of the trust. The trust currently holds assets worth
over $1 billion, including a 74% interest in Black Family Partners.
B.
Governing Law
The trustees will move the situs of administration and governing law of
the trust from New York to Delaware. It is intended that while at least one of you and
Debra is alive and competent, the trust will be a so-called "directed trust." This means
that U.S. Trust Company of Delaware ("U.S. Trust"), which will be the initial
"administrative trustee," will be responsible for all administrative activity relating to the
trust (for example, maintaining accounts, maintaining trust records and preparing tax
returns).
The administrative trustee will not have any involvement in investment
decisions or distribution decisions, or in decisions to amend the trust agreement.
C.
Dispositive Provisions
1.
Distributions
The trust agreement provides that the trustees of the trust must distribute
as much of the trust fund' to or for the benefit of Debra as they determine is necessary for
her health, education, maintenance and welfare. In addition, the trustees must distribute
I This draft assumes that prior to the amendment and restatement the independent trustees have eliminated
Leon's mandatory income right. It is not certain right now whether this assumption is correct.
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as much of the trust fund to or for the benefit of your wife Debra and your issue as the
independent trustees determine for any reason.
2.
After Death of Survivor
Upon the death of the survivor of you and Debra, the trust will terminate.
The remaining assets of the trust will be paid to your issue then living.3 Each issue's
share shall be divided as follows: 75% of such share shall be held in a separate trust for
such issue under article III of the trust agreement and the remaining 25% of such share
shall be held in a separate trust for such issue under article IV of the trust agreement.
3.
Remote Takers
In the unlikely event that none of your issue is living after the death of the
survivor of you and Debra, any remaining property will be paid to your heirs-at-law.
4.
Separate Trusts for Issue
Assets directed to be held as "Portion A" in a separate trust for an issue of
yours will be held in a trust under article III of the trust agreement. Such issue is referred
to as the "Primary Beneficiary." The trustees will pay as much of the trust fund of each
trust to or for the benefit of the Primary Beneficiary as they determine is necessary for his
or her health, education, maintenance and welfare. In addition, the trustees must pay as
much of the trust fund to or for the benefit of the Primary Beneficiary as the independent
trustees, in their sole discretion, determine.
The trustees are directed to approve
distributions from the trust, by way of example, to cover any of the Primary Beneficiary's
medical expenditures, or to help the Primary Beneficiary purchase or finance a home, pay
for a wedding or start a business, provided, however, that such business has a solid
business plan that has been approved by the trustees.
Assets directed to be held as "Portion B" in a separate trust for an issue of
yours will be held in a trust under article IV of the trust agreement. Such issue is referred
to as the "Primary Beneficiary." The trustees will pay as much of the trust fund of each
trust to or for the benefit of the Primary Beneficiary as they determine is necessary for his
or her health, education, maintenance and welfare. In addition, the trustees must pay as
much of the trust fund to or for the benefit of the Primary Beneficiary as the independent
trustees, in their sole discretion, determine.
The trustees are directed to approve
distributions from the trust, by way of example, to cover any of the Primary Beneficiary's
medical expenditures, or to help the Primary Beneficiary purchase or finance a home, pay
for a wedding or start a business, provided, however, that such business has a solid
2
For all purposes of the trust agreement, your issue are deemed to be Benjamin, Joshua, Alexander,
Victoria, any future children, and their descendants.
3
Except as otherwise provided, whenever property is payable to the issue of an individual under your
trust agreement, it will be distributed in equal shares to such individual's children who are then living.
If a child of the individual is not then living, such child's share of such property will be paid to his or
her children then living, in equal shares.
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business plan that has been approved by the trustees. If the Primary Beneficiary is
competent and at least 35 years old, he or she will have the right to direct payment to
himself or herself of the lesser of five million ($5,000,000) Dollars, adjusted for inflation,
and 3% of the value of the trust fund, taking into account sums already paid to him or her
during that calendar year. If the Primary Beneficiary has a similar power to direct
payment to himself or herself under other trust instruments, the Primary Beneficiary's
withdrawal power under this Trust Agreement and any other such trust instruments shall
be limited for each calendar year to five million ($5,000,000) dollars in total, adjusted for
inflation. At age 35, the Primary Beneficiary will also have the power to appoint the trust
fund to or for the benefit of any of Leon's issue (other than himself or herself) or a
qualified charitable organization at his or her death. These powers may be suspended,
terminated or postponed by the independent trustees for good cause, such as serious
illness, creditor issues, a pending divorce or the like.
Each trust held under article III and article IV will end on the Primary
Beneficiary's death. The remaining trust assets will be paid to the Primary Beneficiary's
issue then living, or if the Primary Beneficiary has no issue then living, to his or her
siblings then living, or if no such siblings are then living, to his or her cousins then living,
or, if none, to Leon's issue then living, in each case in a separate trust for each of them
upon the same terms as the terminated trust.
D.
Trustees
John Hannan, Richard Ressler, John Suydam and Barry Cohen will be the
initial individual co-trustees of the trust and U.S. Trust will be the initial administrative
trustee.
At any time that you and Debra are either not living or are under a
disability, U.S. Trust will be the corporate trustee of the trusts under article III and article
IV. As corporate trustee, U.S. Trust will have all of the powers granted to an independent
trustee under the trust agreement. In other words, the trusts will no longer be directed
trusts.
During your lifetime, you may designate additional and/or successor
trustees and may remove trustees. After your death or disability, Debra will have these
powers. After the death or disability of both of you, the trustees of any trust may
designate additional and/or successor trustees, unless the Primary Beneficiary of such
trust has the power to designate trustees.
After the death or disability of the survivor of you and Debra, when the
Primary Beneficiary of a trust held under article III or article IV turns 35 years old, he or
she may designate additional and/or successor trustees of such trust, including himself or
herself, and may remove trustees of such trust. In each case where a removed trustee was
an independent trustee, the person removing the trustee must concurrently designate a
new independent trustee. In addition, each trust under article III must have a corporate
trustee at all times. However, the Primary Beneficiary of a trust held under article IV
could remove the corporate trustee if he or she believed it was appropriate. In that case,
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the Primary Beneficiary or the remaining trustees would be required to designate an
administrative trustee, and the trust would become a directed trust once again.
The trustees who are individuals have the power at all times to remove and
replace the administrative trustee.
U.S. Trust will be entitled to compensation in accordance with its
regularly published schedule of rates.
All other trustees will be entitled to such
compensation as set forth in an agreement between you and such trustee, or, if you are
not living or are under a disability, between Debra and such trustee, or, if neither of you
are living and competent, in the instrument designating such person as trustee. If no
compensation has been specified in such instrument, no compensation will be paid. Each
trustee, however, will be entitled to reimbursement out of the trust fund for all expenses
associated with the administration of the trust.
E.
Administration and Modification
The trust agreement gives the trustees (other than the administrative
trustee) broad investment and administrative powers.
In addition, the independent
trustees may modify the trust agreement while either of you is competent, but only after
giving you (or Debra, if you are not alive or under a disability) 30 days written notice.
No modification will be effective if it would confer a beneficial interest on any person
other than one of your issue. The modification powers have been included to give the
trustees the flexibility to deal with future circumstances.
Tax Consequences
A.
Gift Tax
Any gift you make to the trust will be a taxable gift and will need to be
reported to the Internal Revenue Service on a gift tax return.
B.
Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax
The generation-skipping transfer ("GST") tax generally is imposed, in
addition to any gift or estate tax, on transfers to persons two or more generations below
the transferor's own generation, at the highest estate and gift tax rate. Under current law,
each individual may transfer up to $5.12 million to such persons without incurring a GST
tax (the "GST exemption"). Unless Congress acts to change the law, this amount will be
reduced in 2013 to about $1.39 million.
The assets that are held in the trust are not exempt from the GST tax.
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C.
Estate Tax
The trust agreement does not give you an interest in or control over the
disposition of trust assets after you have contributed them to the trust.4 As a result, the
balance of trust property should not be included in your estate for estate tax purposes.
D.
Income Tax
During your lifetime, the trust will be a so-called "grantor trust" for
income tax purposes. As a result, as long as you are alive, the trust will not be required to
pay income tax on trust income. Instead, you will take into account all of each trust's
income, deductions, and credits when you file your income tax returns. If the trustees use
your social security number as the trust's taxpayer identification number, the trust will
not be required to file income tax returns. All gifts to the trust should be made from an
account in your own name to ensure that the trust is a grantor trust as to only you for
income tax purposes.
After your death, each trust will be a separate taxpayer for income tax
purposes and will be required to file annual federal, and may be required to file annual
state, income tax returns.5 Each trust will pay income tax on its income except to the
extent distributed to beneficiaries. Each beneficiary will pay income tax on distributions
received from the trusts to the extent of his or her share of the distributed income.
**********************
As part of its effort to curb tax shelters, the Internal Revenue Service recently issued
regulations that impose sanctions on attorneys who provide informal written tax advice
without prominently disclosing that the advice cannot be relied upon by the taxpayer for
the purpose of avoiding penalties. Because this memorandum contains a discussion of
tax issues that we do not believe warrants the significant additional time or expense that
would be involved in the preparation of a formal opinion that complies with the IRS
rules, we include the relevant IRS disclosure, below. If you would like us to prepare a
formal tax opinion on which you may rely for penalty relief, please let us know, and we
can discuss the cost of preparing one.
Internal Revenue Service Circular 230 Notice: To ensure compliance
with requirements imposed by the Internal Revenue Service, we inform you that any U.S.
tax advice contained in this communication (including any attachments) is not intended
or written to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding penalties under
the Internal Revenue Code or (ii) promoting, marketing or recommending to another
party any transaction or matter addressed herein.
•
This will be true only if the independent trustees eliminate your right to receive all of the income
earned by the trust. This memorandum assumes that this has already been done.
•
Under current law, it may be possible for a trust to avoid New York income taxes if it has no New
York source income and no trustee who is a New York resident.
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| Filename | EFTA00587834.pdf |
| File Size | 390.7 KB |
| OCR Confidence | 85.0% |
| Has Readable Text | Yes |
| Text Length | 13,774 characters |
| Indexed | 2026-02-11T22:50:56.786269 |