Son Claims Reclusive Father Pressured into Leaving Millions to School

Peter Knoll, 75, died inside of his $10 million New York City townhouse in January of 2018. Though he suffered from diabetes and melanoma, those ailments did not kill him. Instead, the man had not had his gas turned back on since 2014 and had frozen to death and was found days later.

As shocking as his death was, his three children were further shocked by the details of their father’s 2017 will: they each would only receive $50,000. Other gifts were $100,000 to each grandchildren and gifts to friend of alternating amounts, but the bulk of the funds from the sale of his townhouse was to go to the Vermont boarding house that Knoll attended as a teen in the 1950s.

Aaron Knoll, only son of Peter Knoll, has filed court papers declaring that his father was coerced into bequeathing so much to the Putney School by his financial advisor, Bill McKnight, and school administrators. The school’s development director, Hugh Montgomery, said that Peter had contacted the school five years ago, saying that he was interested in donating money to the school upon his death. But Montgomery was “surprised” by how much was given.

See Son Claims his Wealthy, Reclusive and Ill Elderly Father was Pressured Into Leaving Millions to a Boarding School Prior to Freezing to Death in his $10M New York Townhouse, Daily Mail, July 23, 2018.

Special thanks to Joel C. Dobris (Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law) for bringing this article to my attention.