Lessons From An Heiress

Before she died at age 104, Huguette Clark was an heiress to a copper mining fortune with more than $300 million.  In his best-selling book, Empty Mansions, Bill Dedman unravels the tale of her remarkable family and why much of her fortune was spent and her valuable belongings sold in the last decades of her life.  Upon her death, relatives challenged Clark’s end-of-life wishes, and many of her millions went to lawyers instead of funding a charity. 

Clark was clear that she did not want her distant relatives to inherit any of her money.  However, when 19 relatives came forward to challenge her will, the resulting battle carved away at her large estate.  Even though the relatives were unable to prove that Clark was incompetent or had been misled, they received $35 million from the estate, and tens of millions more went to lawyers. 

While many of us do not have to worry about leaving behind millions when we die, Clark’s story offers clear lessons for anyone worried about what will happen to a lifetime’s savings when they are gone.  It is crucial to make a full estate plan, which should be flexible, changing as circumstances change. 

See Bob Sullivan, How an Elderly Heiress Lost Her $300 Million Fortune, Fox Business, Feb. 19, 2015.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.)) for bringing this article to my attention.