Widow sues to remove trustee from $275M Buffett estate trust

by Ashley Carman

Jane Buffett, the widow of singer Jimmy Buffett, is seeking to remove the co-trustee of her husband’s estate, saying he has failed to act in her best interests.

The singer, who died in 2023, left an estate with $275 million in assets for the benefit of his wife, but Jane Buffett claimed in a court filing Tuesday that she’s been told by her co-trustee that she’s to receive less than $2 million annually, a rate of return of less than 1%. 

Richard Mozenter, an attorney at Gelfand, Rennert & Feldman, is the co-trustee, according to the filing in California state court in Los Angeles. 

His attorneys filed their own suit on June 2 in state court in Palm Beach, Florida, saying she has interfered in ways that have cost the trust money and seeking to remove her as co-trustee.

The late singer’s assets include a 20% stake in Margaritaville, a company with interests in more than 30 restaurants and bars and 20 hotels, including one in New York’s Times Square. That business has paid distributions of roughly $14 million over the past 18 months, according to the suit. The estate’s share of the Margaritaville business was valued at $85.3 million.

The estate’s other assets include $34.5 million in property, $15.3 million in airplanes, $2 million in musical equipment, $11.4 million in fine art, and $5 million in vehicles, according to the suit.

Buffett is best known for his 1977 hit Margaritaville.

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