625 / What is the estate tax value of a survivor’s annuity under a joint and survivor annuity contract?

The value is the amount the same insurance company would charge the survivor for a single life annuity as of the date of the first annuitant’s death.¹ Where it can be proven that the survivor’s life expectancy is below average, it may be possible to obtain a valuation based on the survivor’s actual life expectancy at the date of the decedent’s death.² For example, lower valuation has been obtained on proof that the surviving annuitant’s life expectancy was short because of an incurable disease.³

Even if an executor elects to value estate assets as of six months after death (alternate valuation), a survivor’s annuity is valued at the date of death. The date of death value is used, despite the election of an alternate valuation, where any change in value after death is due only to lapse of time.

If a surviving annuitant dies during the six months following the first annuitant’s death, a lower valuation may be obtained by electing alternate valuation. Thus, in one case, where the survivor died before the optional valuation date, the value at the optional valuation date was determined by subtracting the cost of an annuity as of the survivor’s date of death from the cost of an annuity as of the first annuitant’s date of death.⁴

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1. Treas. Reg. § 20.2031-8(a)(3) (Ex.1); Estate of Mearkle v. Commissioner, 129 F.2d 386 (3d Cir. 1942); Estate of Welliver v. Commissioner, 8 TC 165 (1947); Estate of Pruyn v. Commissioner, 12 TC 754 (1949), rev’d, 184 F.2d 971 (2d Cir. 1950); Christiernin v. Manning, 138 F. Supp. 923 (D.N.J. 1956).

2. Estate of Jennings v. Commissioner, 10 TC 323 (1948).