Mother of Tobacco Heirs Wants To Spend Children's Trust Fund On Home

As I have previously discussed, the mother of the heirs to Doris Duke's vast wealth, Daisha Inman, was at odds with the trustees that manage her children's trust funds. Well, now Inman has taken a turn in a direction that is likely making the trustees hang their heads. Recently, Inman decided to move her and the children out of her home in South Carolina to a hotel room in Park City, Utah. What reason could Inman have for making such a sudden move: she wants to use her children's $29 million trust fund to purchase a large ranch in Utah.  The trustee, Francis Simms, refused Inman's request to purchase the property, even after the ranch's price decreased to $16 million, because he felt that the price was still too high and Inman's past behavior was too erratic for her to make a responsible decision. In the recent past, Inman has requested funds to purchase a $4.3 million home in South Carolina. Simms cited the fact that she asked to buy the home and then left the state without notice a few months later as a good reason to deny her latest request. 

Simms also rejected claims that he is withholding the trust fund money from the children. Apparently, there was an alleged incident that the trust did not pay for the children's tuition this past January. Simms claims that the reason that trust did not pay for the tuition was because "Inman refused to provide an itemized invoice for the twins' Utah schooling and instructed the school 'Not to disclose any information to JPMorgan.'" He also denied allegations that the executors of the estate tried to move the family into a one-bedroom apartment. As of late, the whereabouts of Inman and the children are not known because they have already checked out the hotel they were staying at in Park City. According to the New York Post, now "[t]he trustees asked the court to intervene in the battle over the children's money."

See Julia Marsh, Mom of Duke Tobacco Heirs Wanted to Blow Trust Fund Cash on $29M Utah Ranch, New York Post, Mar. 6, 2013.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.)) for bringing this article to my attention.