Business

Medical giant avoided estate taxes by passing ownership to son before death

Bill and Gayle Cook, the co-founders of medical-device maker Cook Group, passed ownership of the company to their son, Carl, to avoid estate taxes before Bill Cook’s death in 2011, according to a biography of the patriarch.

“We had to bypass Gayle to get the stock to Carl now. That took a long time and a lot of planning and work,” Bill Cook said.

The maker of needles and other medical products is valued at $5.8 billion, making Carl Cook the 251st-richest person in the world; the company had revenue of about $2 billion in 2012.

“It took us almost 15 years to transfer the stock to Carl in an equitable way, so the taxes wouldn’t kill the company,” Bill Cook said.