Estate Planning

Is a Billionaire's Estate Going to the Dogs?

By Hull & Hull LLP

Leona Helmsley, the deceased billionaire hotelier who, in her will, left her dog Trouble a $12 million trust, is back in the news.  

Also in her will, Ms. Helmsley directed that the bulk of her estate (estimated to be worth somewhere between $5 billion - $8 billion) be put into a charitable trust.  However, until now little has been revealed about who the beneficiaries of the trust were.  

As it turns out, she attached to her will a memorandum containing a “mission statement” setting out she wished the funds left to the charitable trust to be distributed.  In it, she specified that she wanted the funds to be used for the care and welfare of dogs (in an earlier version of the memorandum she had directed that the poor and indigent also be beneficiaries of the trust but apparently later changed her mind and decided that the funds should just be used to the benefit of dogs.)  

People who have seen the memorandum have questioned whether it would have much legal effect. Apparently, the estate trustees are provided with some discretion as to whom the funds should be distributed.  In addition, the memorandum is drafted as an expression of wishes rather than as a testamentary document.  Nevertheless, it does speak to what the testator’s intent is and, as such, likely cannot be completely ignored.  

In any event, Ms. Helmsley’s estate trustees have tried to avoid publicizing the exact contents of the memorandum.  They might have reason to be concerned – after the $12 million trust left to Trouble was revealed, the poor dog received death threats!

Thanks for reading,

Megan F. Connolly

Full post as published by Toronto Estate Law Blog on July 03, 2008 (boomark / email).