Being fabulously wealthy can bring challenges and burdens. I found this list of the top ten most vicious fights over inherited fortunes at ListVerse.com. It was written by Selme Angulo and published on 3/3/23. While an interesting peek into the finances of some very wealthy individuals, it is relatively long, so I’m dividing it into two parts. Part two will be posted next week.
So we’ll start with number ten and work up to number one.
“Money will forever be a topic of debate. Some claim it can buy happiness. Others argue the opposite. In reality, the impact of money on living the good life is (a little bit) more nuanced. For many, it depends on how it is acquired. Some people become wealthy through their professional success, hard work, or luck. Others have the privilege of growing up close to great wealth and merely must wait for the chance to inherit it.
That sounds like a good life, doesn’t it? Maybe, but inheritance can often be a very complicated process. The transfer of wealth from one generation to the next can lead to vicious disputes and awful tensions among heirs. After a rich person dies, family members can come out of the proverbial woodwork to compete for a share of the estate.
In some cases, these disputes can drag on for years or even decades. Through it all, there is no guarantee of a favorable outcome. Funds melt away as legal costs mount. Anger among surviving family members only gets more and more intense. For some ultra-wealthy people and their families, inherited fortunes can lead to these unexpected conflicts. In the worst cases, these long-lasting legal battles tear families apart.
In this list, you’ll learn about ten of the world’s most vicious and vindictive fights over inherited fortunes. These families battled brutally over billions of dollars—but in the end, did anybody really win?
10 Sir Jacob Downing
Over the centuries before us, England’s richest people have chosen to leave their mark on the university, even giving generously to establish colleges. Their legacies remain today as benefactors of what has become one of the greatest universities in the world. But not all donations have come smoothly. In fact, some have been the subject of awful and complicated legal battles that have lasted for decades.
Take the story of Downing College, for one. The college was founded through a 17th-century bequest from English statesman Sir George Downing. However, it was not without its challenges. In the late 18th century, Sir Jacob Downing was the last living heir of Sir George. Jacob inherited a considerable fortune from the family, which he left to his wife upon his death in 1764.
The University of Cambridge sought to challenge the will, seeking money for George’s century-old donation. That kicked off a vicious 40-year-long legal battle. By the time the university finally won the case nearly four decades later, much of the money had been spent on legal fees. That left precious few funds remaining to actually build a college. However, the university pressed on with what little it earned from the legal battle. Finally, in 1820, Downing College welcomed its first students.
9 Harinder Singh Brar
The Indian subcontinent was once home to numerous royal families who ruled over different parts of the country. For centuries, they dominated local politics and accumulated wealth. Today, they don’t hold the same power as they used to years before. However, many of these families still maintain significant assets passed down by earlier generations.
One such family was helmed by Sir Harinder Singh Brar. In his life, he had been the last of the former rulers of the Faridkot state. During his lifetime, he made multiple wills. Each one was also revised multiple times. At one point, he disinherited one of his daughters, only to later reconcile with her. When he died in 1989, the floodgates opened as the legal battle became vicious.
After Sir Harinder’s death, the formerly disinherited daughter, Amrit Kaur, expected to be in the newly revised will. However, at Sir Harinder’s inquest, a different will was read. It once again disinherited Amrit, who thought she had been aware of the most recent changes in her father’s post-mortem wishes. This led to a 31-year legal battle that began in 1991. It involved Kaur, her two sisters, an uncle, and a cousin.
After three decades, the case was finally settled in 2022 by the Indian Supreme Court. That governing body upheld a lower court’s ruling that the final will was a fake. A forensic expert stated that the handwriting and signatures in the supposed will were phony. During his life, Sir Harinder was well known for his impeccable and beautiful script. When the new “will” didn’t match, the courts were skeptical about its contents.
Kaur ended up staking her own fortune from the will’s outline. But suddenly, there were forgery battles to be fought, too. After the court’s ruling, Kaur filed a lawsuit against 23 people she believed were part of the forgery plot.
8 Leona Helmsley
The Billionaire Who Left Her Dog $12 Million
Longtime socialite Leona Helmsley was once infamously dubbed “The Queen of Mean.” She lived up to the reputation too. She and her husband had been successful in business and real estate. Over the years, she gained notoriety for her harsh treatment toward others—and for her frugality.
Her reputation reached new heights in 1988 when she was charged and convicted of tax evasion. One witness reported they heard Helmsley utter the infamous words, “We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.” But after serving time in prison, Helmsley became a dog lover. She eventually adopted a pooch named Trouble.
Upon her passing in 2007, Helmsley left Trouble with a $12 million inheritance. Her brother, tasked with caring for the dog, received another $10 million. Two of her supposedly beloved grandchildren were left with just $5 million each. However, her estate was valued between $4 billion and $8 billion. She ordered that the majority of her wealth be placed in a charitable trust. With the earmarked money meant for Trouble, the will soon faced several legal challenges.
Two of her grandchildren, who had been disinherited, successfully sued for $3 million each. Meanwhile, the executors sued for $100 million for their services—and won. A judge later knocked down Trouble’s inheritance take to a measly $2 million. Animal welfare groups even argued for a larger portion of the charitable trust and waged their own legal battles for it. Ultimately, the “Queen of Mean” left one lasting legal legacy after her torrid and tumultuous life.
7 Peter Thellusson
The story of Peter Thellusson is a cautionary tale of what can happen when a wealthy person tries to control their wealth long after they die. Thellusson was an English merchant who managed to accumulate a vast fortune in his life. When he died in 1797, he wanted to ensure his wealth would continue to grow. More interestingly, he didn’t want his children or their children to be able to use any of it.
So he wrote a will that instructed his estate to be held in a trust. All interest on the estate would then be added to the total for decades on end. The idea was that the pile of money would grow until all his great-grandchildren were dead. Then, whoever remained several generations down the line would be able to inherit the fortune.
In the end, though, Thellusson’s plan backfired. Almost immediately, his surviving family was left in dire straits. In 1798, the court upheld his unusual will request and locked his money away. Nearly six decades later, all his great-grandchildren were finally dead. In 1856, a three-year court showdown kicked off. It centered on who exactly should inherit his money. However, there simply wasn’t any money to give! Court fees and taxes meant that hardly any money had accumulated over the years. Thus, Thellusson’s idea of handing his fortune to a descendant he’d never met proved to be an unimaginable dud.
In fact, Thellusson’s will war is so extraordinary that it actually led to a change in English law. Politicians wanted to make sure that such a thing could never happen again. So in the 19th century, the “Thellusson Act” was signed into law. It was meant to prevent people from withholding inheritable assets from family members in a similar way in the future.
6 Jay Pritzker
Whatever Happened to Little Princess star Liesel Matthews?
Jay Pritzker was the founder of hundreds of businesses, including, most notably, the Hyatt hotel chain. In his life, he amassed a significant fortune. But when he died in 2001, it all unraveled—both in court and across public opinion. Despite his wealth, the Pritzker family has previously preferred to stay out of the public eye. But this changed in 2003 when Liesel Pritzker, a 19-year-old niece of the family, took her father and cousins to court over the inheritance. She claimed that $1 billion was stolen from the trust fund for her and her brother. Then, she claimed, they were supposedly kept out of a secret agreement to sell off the family’s companies.
The legal battle divided the family for years. Even more notably, it put their private affairs on public display. Soon, the situation became especially unpleasant for most of the extended family—especially sons Anthony and Jay Robert Pritzker. After two years of court proceedings, the family finally reached a settlement with Liesel and her brother.
The young pair received roughly $560 million to walk away from it all. Not all family members were on board with that pay-off, but the settlement brought closure to the matter. More importantly, for some of the notoriously private Pritzkers, it allowed them to return to a relatively anonymous life away from prying media eyes.”
These are great examples of what can happen when there are multiple, and possibly fake, wills circulating and leaving instructions in your will that, when followed, can backfire. And the importance of clarity in your estate documents to eliminate the possibility of challenges that can and will drain the estate’s coffers to virtually nothing. An experienced estate planning attorney can make sure your estate plan is legal in all respects and is not open to interpretation. Having such an estate plan is the caring thing to do for your loved ones so they aren’t left to “battle it out” after you’re gone. Go to www.davidlefton.com for more information, or call me to schedule a time to talk about your will. Next week, stay tuned for five more examples of why being fabulously wealthy is sometimes a burden.
Source: ListVerse.com. 3/3/23 by Selme Angulo