Frank Murphy

“ Where an applicant for insurance is beyond the age at which a company will underwrite the risk, life insurance may be obtained by purchasing an annuity, which diminishes or eliminates risk of serious loss to the company by the early death of the insured. Here the decedent, a man of about sixty-three, in good health, and with apparently no contemplation of early death, consummated such an arrangement with an insurer. I think it demonstrable that the transaction as respects the beneficiary his wife, was no different in substance or effect than an outright gift of money or property to her. ”

“ The disappearance of a decedent's reversionary interest, together with the resulting estate tax liability, prior to death through events beyond the decedent's control is a possibility in many situations such as the one in issue. [3] Likewise a reversionary interest may become vested prior to a decedent's death because of the occurrence of other events beyond the realm of the decedent's volition and unconnected in any way with his death. But the imposition and computation of the estate tax are based upon the interests in actual existence at the time of the decedent's death. ”

“ Notwithstanding then that, under the law, the wife may, until her death, spend, convey, mortgage or dispose of the property, I suppose it will be held that, inasmuch as all or some of it will descend to him if she omits so to do, he will be held, within the meaning of the statute, to have made a conveyance to take effect at his death because the only way he can avoid inheriting it from the donee is to die. ”