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WWE filed an SEC document on Friday disclosing estate planning involving WWE stock and the McMahon Family.
The lengthy filing, plus a second disclosure, notes that Vince McMahon was granted 2,209,773 shares of Class B McMahon Family Stock from a trust titled “Vincent K. McMahon 2013 Irrev. Trust U/A dtd. December 5, 2013.”
The transaction dated December 7 and finalized Dec. 11 is part of Vince being due an annual annuity payment over the three-year term of the trust that he established.
The trust now holds 3,739,266 shares of Class B Common Stock after disbursing the 2.2 million shares to Vince.
Linda McMahon is the trustee of the trust, so Vince and Linda co-filed the SEC document. They disclosed that Vince established the trust “for the benefit of Mr. McMahon and certain members of Mr. McMahon’s family to hold a portion of the shares of Class B Common Stock previously owned directly by Mr. McMahon.”
Linda has “sole voting power and authority” and each has “unilateral power and authority to sell” the shares, converting to Class A common stock.
Linda McMahon, herself, owns 566,670 Class B Common Stock independent of the trust. Because she also has access to the trust’s shares, she now owns 11.2 percent of WWE stock.
Meanwhile, the trust owns 9.9 percent of WWE stock.
WWE was required to make the filings because the distribution to Vince “reduced the ownership of Class B Common Stock by each of the Reporting Persons (Linda and the trust) by greater than 1 percent of the outstanding Class B Common Stock.”
The filing also notes what happens when the trust expires. From the filing: “On the termination of the (trust), after annuity distributions to Mr. McMahon (or his estate), any remaining trust shares of Class B Common Stock or other property will under certain circumstances pass to successor trusts for other members of Mr. McMahon’s family.”
Of note, Linda is the official owner of the trust under the business name of “McMahon Ventures, LLC,” which with an address on Washington Blvd. in Stamford, Conn., about two miles away from WWE Corporate HQ on Main Street in Stamford.
Basically, the tax laws have a bunch of ridiculous loopholes that allow rich folks like the McMahons to get around gift tax / estate tax / capital gains tax / et cetera with complex trust structures that don’t really have any legitimate purpose. Rich people and lawyers benefit; the US Treasury gets robbed.