OAG 40-42.

• Case Date: August 20, 1940
• Court: Oregon

Oregon Attorney General Opinions 1940. OAG 40-42. 51OPINION NO. 40-42[20 Or. Op. Atty. Gen. 51]Policy providing for life annuity beginning at age 70, in monthly instalments, and providing that if annuitant should die before any such payment insurer will pay certain fixed instalments to surviving wife, is an annuity contract and proceeds are not exempt from inheritance tax.August 20, 1940.Hon. Walter E. Pearson,State Treasurer. Dear Sir: I have your letter of July 19th enclosing a copy of contract of John Kirkpatrick, now deceased, with the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States, which you state is a complete copy of the original except for a rider attached to the original providing for mode of settlement with the named beneficiary, which rider provides that the amount becoming due to the annuitant's wife Agnes J. Kirkpatrick at the death of the annuitant prior to the due date of the first annuity payment, shall be converted into a fixed income for life consisting of the payment of a fixed amount, "as shown in the table stated below". The policy or contract provides for a life annuity beginning at age 70, subject to conditions therein stated, in monthly payments of $64.28, and that if during the continuance of the contract the annuitant should die before any annuity payment is made thereunder the society will pay the amount stated in schedule "C" for the policy year current at the time of his death, to his wife. The consideration for the contract is the payment each year of premium units on an annual basis of $100 which may be paid in semiannual or quarterly installments. Said schedule "C" provides the amount payable as a death benefit to the wife as beneficiary shall be in proportion to the amount that has been paid in installments, the amount for the first year being $91 and increasing correspondingly until the 55th year. You state that it appears to you that the part of the contract which was in the nature of the annuity would be subject to the inheritance tax of the state of Oregon, but that the matter is complicated by the provision in the contract for the payment of a death benefit in case the annuitant should die before any annuity payment was due the annuitant; that this was the case, as Mr. Kirkpatrick died before he had attained 70 years of age, which was the age at which annuity payments were...