Mrs. Astor Regrets
This week I thought that I would share with you some comments on an interesting book I just finished: Mrs. Astor Regrets by Meryl Gordon. This is the story of Brooke Astor, the last Mrs. Astor, who lived one hundred and five years before passing away in August, 2007. The book is captivating because it tells the story of one of the richest women who ever lived and is full of anecdotes about the rich and famous. The Rockefellers, the Whitneys, Henry Kissinger, Tom Brokaw, and Oscar de la Renta are just a few of the famous names that moved in and out of Brooke Astor’s life. These stories alone make for fascinating reading.
However, it is the subtitle of the book “The Hidden Betrayals of a Family Beyond Reproach” that makes the book riveting. Who really expects or plans to live to age 105? What happens when an 80 year old son is tired of waiting for his inheritance?
When John Jacob Astor went down with the Titanic, he left $87 million to his son Vincent. Vincent later married Brooke. When Vincent Astor died in 1959, he left an estate worth over $120 million. $60 million was left in trust for his wife and another $60 million was left to the Astor Foundation. Brooke Astor was well known for her active philanthropy as the head of the Astor Foundation. Over the next 40 years, she gave away $200 million to New York City charities, making her the most influential person in the City. She also lived the “good life” and thought nothing of wearing a $250,000 necklace when dressing to go out for dinner.
Brooke Astor lived a vigorous and active life right on through her 100th birthday party, but her mental and physical health then began to deteriorate. Her last years of life became tragic because she did no disability planning. The richest woman in America did not have a Revocable Living Trust. Instead, her estate planning was confined to a Will and many codicils (she changed her Will 38 times).
As her mental health deteriorated, her only son “took over” and acted in ways that ultimately resulted in his being indicted on criminal charges of elder abuse and theft. He cut his mother’s staff, shut her up in her Park Avenue apartment, isolated her from her friends and seriously diminished the quality of her healthcare. As a result, her close friends, led by Annette de la Renta, filed a court petition to have a formal guardianship established. Needless to say, the filing of this guardianship petition was heaven for the tabloids and the family tragedy was page-one news in every New York newspaper. Eventually, Annette de la Renta was appointed as Brooke Astor’s guardian and Mrs. Astor’s last year of life was made more tolerable.
The irony is that the world’s richest woman could have avoided this entire spectacle had she planned for disability by establishing a Revocable Living Trust, leaving specific instructions and appointing someone she trusted to administer her affairs according to those instructions, if she became mentally incapacitated. Her failure to do so resulted in a family tragedy of Shakespearian proportions, tabloid headlines, millions of dollars of attorney’s fees and her only son being indicted. His criminal trial is going on right now, providing more grist for the tabloids’ mills. (see: http://www.nypost.com/seven/07082009/news/regionalnews/manhattan/marshall_collapses_in_courthouse_mens_ro_178228.htm)
All of this could have been avoided by a common estate planning technique that is readily available to everyone, not just the mega-rich. Don’t let a similar family tragedy occur to you, your friends, or clients. Everyone needs to plan for the potential of being alive, but mentally incapacitated. Estate planning is not just about what happens after death. Brooke Astor’s final years are a fascinating testament to this fact.
