As recently as two years ago, John Mara [Wellington's son] said the family had taken the steps to structure the team's ownership so that federal estate taxes would not be so onerous that they would prompt the sale of the team. The goal was to avoid what happened in Miami, where estate taxes and feuding among the trustees of Joe Robbie's estate led to the sale of the Dolphins to H. Wayne Huizenga in 1994.
But in 1995, despite acknowledging that steps had been taken to ensure an orderly transfer of the team within the family, John Mara told The New York Times: "It will be hard to keep control and pay the taxes, that is true. The estate tax laws are so severe. I think we've done some careful planning, which we believe will allow us to carry on control of the organization. But it will be difficult to do."
John Mara says he and his 10 siblings all have ownership interests in the Giants. In addition to lifetime gifts, Wellington Mara is believed to have used the marital deduction, trusts, limited partnerships and life insurance in crafting his estate plan.
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2 comments:
What is the estate tax value of the Giants> Probably more than the Mars family planned for.
For camparison, the Minnesota Vikings were bought by Red McCombs for $246 million in 1998 and sold earlier this year for $625 million, in a deal that was widely reported to life the values of franchises around the league. That's a 154% increase during seven years.
In 1999 the New York Jets were sold for $635 million, according to the Times report. If we assume that the Giants had the same value then and apply the growth factor experienced by the Vikings, the Giants today are worth nearly $1.5 billion!
The Mars family owns just 50% of the Giants, and much of the ownership has already been redistributed within the family. The estate tax consquences may not be severe.
Still, when they bought the insurance policy to help meet death taxes, I doubt the family was expecting values of this magnitude.
The Times article I linked cites a Forbes estimate of $806 million for the Mara family's interest.
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