Here’s the latest from NBC News Investigative Reporter Bill Dedman regarding the legal battle over copper heiress Huguette Clark’s estate. Clark spent the last two decades of her life living in a New York City hospital. During that time, she gave away more than $40 million in gifts – some highly questionable as per allegations made by extended family members seeking a share of the estate. From Dedman:
NEW YORK — The stakes have been set in the battle over the wealth of copper heiress Huguette Clark. More than $300 million is on the table as her extended family prepares for a court battle with her nurse and others for the last whispers of one of the great fortunes from America’s Gilded Age.
At her death on May 24, 2011, in the New York City hospital where she had lived for 20 years, the daughter of one of the copper kings of Montana possessed about $306.5 million, counting all her real estate, stocks, bonds, cash, trusts and personal property. The accounting was filed this week in Surrogate’s Court in Manhattan by the office of the public administrator, the temporary executor of her estate.
Clark’s estimated property values:
- $84.5 million for Bellosguardo, her California beachfront summer home on 23.5 acres in Santa Barbara. That value was reduced to reflect $502,000 in property tax liens.
- $53.0 million for her three apartments at 907 Fifth Ave., New York City. Their values are $24 million for apartment 12-W, which has been sold, $19 million for apartment 8-W, which has also found a buyer, and $10 million for apartment 8-E, still on the market. Each apartment has approximately 5,000 square feet.
- $14.3 million for La Beau Château, her Connecticut country home on 51.7 acres in New Canaan.
- $79.3 million in stocks, bonds, cash and trusts, including $4,039 in unclaimed funds received from the state of New York.
- $75.4 million in personal property. Details are not given, but this includes a Monet and other paintings, jewelry, furniture and her doll collection.
Attribution:
Up for grabs: the $300 million estate of reclusive heiress Huguette Clark
Bill Dedman/Investigative Reporter, NBC News
October 5, 2012
NBCNews.com
http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/05/14224537-up-for-grabs-the-300-million-estate-of-reclusive-heiress-huguette-clark?chromedomain=usnews&lite
Estate of Denial® provides news, analysis and commentary on abusive practices occurring in probate courts and via probate instruments (wills, trusts, guardianships, powers of attorney). We provide original perspective to educate the public regarding this growing threat to both individual freedoms and property rights.