NEW YORK CITY — They’re each expected to inherit a mind-boggling $500 million when they turn 21 in six years, but right now they’re just struggling to pay for school.
Teen twins Georgia Inman and Walker Patterson Inman III, the heirs to Manhattan philanthropist Doris Duke‘s massive fortune, were suspended from their private high school last week because their monthly tuition hadn’t been paid, according to court records.
Educational Advantage, a school based in Park City, Utah, sent a letter to the teens’ mom, Daisha Inman, informing her that they owe $24,524. The school suspended the 15-year-olds on Jan. 28 until they pay the overdue bill, court records show.
The delinquency stems from a bitter feud in Manhattan Surrogate’s Court between Daisha Inman and JPMorgan, which administers a trust for the teens until they turn 21.
DNAinfo.com New York previously reported in October that JPMorgan says it exercises discretion in doling out money to the twins because of Daisha Inman’s hefty requests in the past — including $6,000 for a haunted house party and $50,000 for Christmas gifts.
The banking giant claims that while it provides cash for the twins’ cost of living — including tuition — it fears the fund will be drained if it concedes to the mom’s financial demands.
Daisha Inman says JPMorgan’s stinginess leaves them scrambling to pay their bills each month and nearly got them evicted from their rental home in South Carolina last year.
The legal battle got so bad that in May a Surrogate’s Court judge appointed lawyer Lawrence Murphy as an independent guardian to act in the interest of the children in the proceeding.
In a report he submitted last week, Murphy said that “a great amount of friction” exists between the twins’ mom and JPMorgan.
Murphy said that in a Jan. 27 email, Daisha Inman blamed JPMorgan’s harassment and negligence for the twins’ impending suspension and said the bank continues “to embarrass, humiliate and disrespect this family, putting us through hell with funding our providers and personal funding.”
“My children are upset, anxious and embarrassed about being expelled from school due to the trustees not paying their monthly tuition,” the mom wrote.
She added that the kids fear that by missing class they’ll have to attend summer school and miss out on a vacation to visit their relatives in Oregon.
The Inmans claimed they were almost evicted last year because JPMorgan only gives them money to rent rather than a lump sum to buy a permanent home, the report says.
Daisha Inman also told Murphy that JPMorgan advised her just before the holidays in December that she, the twins and their pets would have to move into a one-room apartment. The situation was resolved at the last minute, and the family now lives in “adequate accommodations,” Murphy said.
The tumult over the trust is the latest chapter in a roiling intergenerational saga involving one of the country’s wealthiest families.
The twins are the children of Walker Patterson Inman Jr., the nephew of Doris Duke, the late tobacco heiress who split her time between a $44 million Upper East Side mansion and 2,740-acre New Jersey farm.
Inman Jr. was a globe-trotting adventurer who married his fourth wife, Daisha, in 1996. They divorced after four years of marriage and spent 10 years in an acrimonious custody battle. In one proceeding, Inman Jr. said his children would be worth $1 billion when they turn 21 on Oct. 23, 2018.
Inman Jr. died at 57 in 2010 from a methadone overdose, and his fortune went to his children.
In his report, Murphy asked the judge to have Daisha Inman and JPMorgan representatives meet face to face in court in March to hash out their differences.
JPMorgan declined to comment. Murphy and the Inmans did not respond to a request for comment.
James Fanelli, DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
February 6, 2013
DNAinfo.com
http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20130206/new-york-city/doris-dukes-heirs-booted-from-school-for-unpaid-tuition-amid-1b-fight
Additional coverage:
Twin heirs to immense fortune of Manhattan socialite Doris Duke see finances snarled by struggle to access cash in JPMorgan trust
Daniel Beekman/Barbara Ross
February 7, 2013
New York Daily News
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/doris-duke-heirs-wrangle-jpmorgan-article-1.1257513#ixzz2KM6RJYtl
Even if you’re fabulously wealthy, your bills still have to be paid.
Two 15-year-old heirs to Manhattan socialite Doris Duke’s mammoth fortune were suspended from a Park City, Utah, education center last month until they paid $25,627 in tuition and late fees, Manhattan Surrogate Court papers show.
Teenage twins Georgia Inman and Walker Patterson Inman III, who each stand to inherit $500 million at 21, were suspended from a Park City, Utah, education center last month for not paying $25,627 in tuition and late fees, Manhattan Surrogate Court papers show.
But the 15-year-olds are hardly hurting for cash. They didn’t pay on time because their money is snarled in a bitter battle between their mother and JPMorgan, which administers a Duke trust, a court-appointed guardian for the youngsters told the Daily News.
The problem arose because JPMorgan is very cautious about paying bills from the trust. The financial services firm demands extensive documentation, which slows down the payment process, said guardian Lawrence Murphy.
That situation has created tension between the twins’ mother, Daisha Inman, and JPMorgan, one of several firms overseeing multiple trust funds for her kids.
The teens weren’t suspended long: Their debt was paid about a day later, Murphy said. But the episode is just one in a series of clashes between their mother — the ex-wife of Duke’s late nephew, who died from a methadone overdose in 2010 — and JPMorgan.
Daisha Inman says her immensely rich family has been in danger of eviction from rental property because the firm won’t release enough cash for her to buy a home, Murphy said in a recent report to the court.
In a Jan. 27 email Daisha Inman sent Murphy, she wrote: “The trustees continue to embarrass and disrespect this family, putting us through hell.”
“The trustees are way over the line, harassing and negligent,” she said. “My children are upset, anxious and embarrassed about being expelled from school due to the trustees not paying their monthly tuition. They are scared this will set them back and they will have to go to summer school and not be able to take a summer vacation to Oregon.”
Murphy and another guardian were appointed last May to help deal with the tiff and represent the best interests of the teens.
But JPMorgan may have had enough. The firm has indicated it wants to unload its Duke trust responsibilities onto Citibank, which oversees other Duke trusts, Murphy told The News.
Murphy has recommended to the court that Daisha Inman receive a lump sum so that bank trustees don’t have to get involved with every penny spent.
Doris Duke was a globetrotting tobacco heiress. She died in 1993.
Julia Marsh/Leonard Greene
February 7, 2013
New York Post
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/million_heir_crash_lKNwzEz1nuYqc7aCxWOZHP
They’re poor little rich kids.
The teenage twin heirs of late Manhattan philanthropist Doris Duke — who will be worth an estimated $500 million each when they turn 21 — are being nickel-and-dimed so badly by the estate’s trustees that they were suspended from school for not paying tuition, court records reveal.
The pitiful plight of 15-year-old Georgia and Walker Inman, heirs to the late tobacco billionaire’s massive fortune, came to light after Utah-based private school and online tutoring company Educational Advantage suspended the twins when the company got stiffed on a $24,524 bill for online course work, according to a court filing.
The company sent a letter to a trustee for JPMorgan, which administers the Duke estate, saying that the payment for Georgia and Walker was almost a month late.
“My children are upset, anxious and embarrassed about being expelled from school due to the trustees not paying their monthly tuition,” the twins’ mom, Daisha Inman, wrote in a Jan. 27 e-mail to an independent guardian for the kids appointed by the court.
The guardian, attorney Lawrence Murphy, told The Post the Inmans were recently re-enrolled.
“My belief is the checks were delivered to the school and they’re back in,” Murphy said.
The financial problems are connected to a Manhattan Surrogate Court tug-of-war between the angry mother and the cautious JPMorgan trustees.
The bank says it tightened the purse strings after Daisha, 52, made requests to lavish her children with a $5,000 haunted-house Halloween party and $50,000 worth of Christmas gifts.
The bank gave Daisha half the haunted-house money, but “only” $5,000 for Christmas, finding the $45,000 she wanted for a horse, a trip around the world and a snowmobile a bit much.
“If the trustees simply funded all requests it received, the children’s trusts could be drained of assets long before the children ever reach the age of 21 years,” the bank said in court filings.
The twins’ father, Walker Inman Jr., was the nephew of tobacco heiress and philanthropist Doris Duke, who died nearly 20 years ago.
Daisha, Walker’s fourth wife, divorced him and gained custody of the children after he died from a methadone overdose in 2010.
Walker Inman Jr., known as Skipper, was the grandson of ames “Buck” Duke, the president and founder of the American Tobacco Co., maker of Lucky Strike cigarettes.
Duke was one of the richest tycoons of his time, and Duke University, Duke Power and the multimillion-dollar Duke Endowment bear the family’s name.
A spokesman for JPMorgan declined to comment.
Daisha Inman, who lives in South Carolina with the twins, did not immediately return calls and e-mails.
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.