Wealth Transfer Group

The Wealth Transfer Group is a consulting firm that provides estate planning services. They serve only clients with estates worth more than US$10,000,000.

In 2006, the Wealth Transfer Group sued former Aetna CEO John Rowe for infringement of a tax patent.[1] The patent, U.S. Patent 6,567,790, entitled "Establishing and managing grantor retained annuity trusts funded by nonqualified stock options", covers WTG's SOGRAT (Stock Option Grantor Retained Annuity Trust) system of minimizing gift tax.[2] The case has been settled for undisclosed terms.[3]

The SOGRAT case is often cited both by those that favor tax patents[4] as well as those that seek to have them banned.[5]

On January 12, 2011, the director of the USPTO initiated a reexamination of US patent 6,567,790.[6] The reexamination serial number is 90/009,868.

See also

Tax patent

References
  1. Norris Floyd, "Patent Law is Getting Tax Crazy", International Herald Tribune, October 19, 2006
  2. Nowotarski, Mark, "Tax Strategies?", Insurance IP Bulletin, October 15, 2006
  3. Herman, Tom, "Patents on Tax-Related Ideas Stir Worry", Wall Street Journal, March 14, 2007
  4. Gruner, Richard, "Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures of the House Committee on Ways and Means" July 13, 2006
  5. "Tax-Strategy Patents and the Tax Gap", The Tax Advisor, AICPA, May 2007
  6. Gene Quinn, "Patent Office Orders Reexamination of Tax Related Patent" IPwatchdog, January 20, 2011


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