“Empty Mansions” Is a Case Study for Estate Planners
Suppose you were an attorney or an accountant and your client with net worth of over $300,000,000 decided she did not feel like writing a Will. Worse, she has no children, has had minimal or no contact with multiple distant relatives who would inherit without a Will, and has no tax planning by way of trusts, foundations or otherwise. Add to this that she has been writing numerous checks to friends, doctors, her private duty nurse, relatives of her private duty nurse, and others, some of them in excess of $1 million, for multiple years and buying them properties.
This is the dilemma that confronted attorneys and accountants for Huguette Clark, the last living heiress of her generation of the estate of W.A. Clark and this is the true story described in a new book, “Empty Mansions,” authored by Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Newell, Jr. which is subtitled “The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune.” Besides relating the narrative of a prestigious American family, the book could serve as a fascinating basis for discussion of legal ethics, Will contests and capacity. The answers might not be what you think.
Huguette died shortly before her 105th birthday. She signed her Last Will and Testament in 2005 when she was 98 years old to replace one just signed a month earlier. She had been, except for a recent episode, in outstandingly good health. She outlived almost all of her attorneys who repeatedly requested that she write a Will. With her multiple lifetime gifts, her gift tax exposure, not fully known until after death, was estimated at $82 million and mounting.
“Empty Mansions” is not just the story of an elderly woman and how she spent money although it is that. It delves into the main character’s background, her childhood, and especially her family history. W.A. Clark, the father of Huguette Clark, although not well known today, was a self-made multimillionaire in the mold of contemporaries like John D. Rockefeller and Henry Ford. A copper industrialist, railroad builder, former Senator, and founder of the City of Las Vegas, Clark was also a man who commissioned mansions and bought properties, a practice continued by his widow, Anna, after his death. Anna, Huguette’s mother, was W.A.’s second wife, his first wife Katherine Louise Stauffer Clark, having died in 1893. Since Katherine and W.A. had seven children together, four of whom survived to adulthood and had families of their own, there were multiple half-grandnephews and half-grandnieces and younger who might assert a claim after their half great-aunt died. Huguette’s only sister died in her teens.
Much of the book is spent describing Huguette’s residences some of which she had not seen for half a century, and collections especially doll collections and doll residences which she had custom-made to exquisite detail or purchased at auction. She bought paintings, many of them by impressionists such as Renoir and Degas, and
Japanese figures depicting royalty and folklore and Stradivari violins. She was also an artist in her own right and extremely reclusive.
The term “Empty Mansions” refers primarily to Huguette’s mother’s home in California, Bellosguardo, which she inherited and also Huguette’s purchased home in Connecticut and her residences at 907 Fifth Avenue, 8W and 12W, New York consisting of some 40 rooms which remained vacant for multiple years. Although Huguette paid caretakers to oversee the properties, once she made her next to final move in 1991, she never saw them again.
Not to spoil the surprise, I will not reveal Huguette’s residence from 1991 to 2004 but it will be unexpected.
The question, of course, at the end of the day was whether Huguette Clark was competent to execute a Will or, for that matter to gift as she did or was she incapacitated or subject to undue influence and should people in what is known as a “confidential relationship” to her have accepted gifts. Even her attorney and her accountant were given bequests by her Will in addition to being named as Executors and Trustees.
One unexpected answer from the authors seems to be that Huguette knew exactly what she was doing and would not have changed a thing. She certainly had a strong personality. If you are interested, you could read the book and decide.
About the Author Janet Colliton
Esquire, Colliton Law Associates, P.C. Janet Colliton has practiced law for over 38 years, 37 of them in Chester County, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. Her practice, Colliton Law Associates, PC, is limited to elder law, Medicaid, including advice, applications and appeals, and other benefits planning including Veterans benefits, life care and special needs planning, guardianships, retirement, and estate planning and administration.