The Halas family has owned the Chicago Bears since the team was founded in 1920, and Virginia McCaskey had been in charge since her father George Halas died in 1983. Now that she has died, there are questions about the Bears’ future ownership, and many in the league who want the family to remain in charge.
The NFL paid tribute to McCaskey during the Super Bowl, and there is no doubt of her family’s importance to the league. McCaskey was the principal owner of the NFL’s oldest team for more than 40 years, and with her death many observes expect the league to encourage the family to keep the Bears.
“The continuity from the start of the NFL is important. So is the McCaskey family going back to George Halas,” said Marc Ganis, sports marketing expert.
Ganis said all NFL teams are required to update an ownership succession plan annual, so the Bears have clearly already planned for the day when their matriarch would no longer be around. That likely includes estate planning to help pay taxes on the value of the team, which Forbes recently estimated at more than $6 billion. The estate taxes could be up to 50%.
“There probably has been multiple stages of gifting or estate planning. That’s very typical for families like this,” said estate planning attorney Steven Kriz.
Kriz works with high net worth families, and said the large McCaskey family likely has spread ownership of the team among nine surviving children, 40 grandchildren and dozens of other family members. That means Virginia McCaskey may have actually owned only a small percentage of the team, and taxes on her estate would likely be more manageable.
Ganis said the NFL eased some rules to help the Rooney family, which owns the Pittsburgh Steelers, keep control of the team after Art Rooney Sr. died. The league would likely want to support the McCaskey family as well, but it’s unclear what the family will decide. While they own a valuable asset, their wealth is mostly tied up in that asset unless they sell.
“It is highly unlikely that they will be forced to sell for reasons such as having to pay inheritance taxes,” Ganis said.
Services for Virginia McCaskey are scheduled for this week. Any discussion about the future ownership of the team will likely be some appropriate amount of time after that.
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