John Eligon in Fight for Astor Estate mirors 50 years ago has written an interesting article about the prior will contest litigation from 1959. The comment in the final paragraph by attorney and friend of Brooke Astor - Louis Auchincloss said that Brooke Astor eventually settled with John Jacob Astor VI who accused Brooke of undue influence and his father of having of lacking testemenary capacity at the time the final will was executed for $250,000 because it would have cost less than the attorney fees to handle the will contest despite the fact that there were 26 different revisions of her husband Vincent Astors will none of whom mentioned John Jacob. It further came out in trial that the reason for that Brooke testified was Vincent found John Jacob Astor VI to be "the most useless member of society and despised him as a slacker".
Interesting to note that the US Department of Labor Inflation Calculator shows that $250,000 back around 1959 would be worth $1,831,958.76 so they felt it would cost nearly $2m to defend the estate litigation case back then.
It also brings up a couple other issues. One being that he likely would have had a difficult time prevailing since there had been 26 prior wills and since he was not mentioned in any he would have had to prove that there was undue or lack of capacity during all of them. Preparing multiple wills over a period of years can be a helpful strategy in order to minimize the chance of success of a will contest.
In this case Brooke received $2 million, nearly all of her husbands property and possessions and income from a $127 million trust fund that was part of the estate so there was plenty to settle with but surprising that his not being mentioned in any of the 26 prior wills the attorney would think the attorney fees alone would still reach nearly $2 million just to defend adjusted for inflation. Possibly she should have litigated to see that her husbands wishes were carried out.
Another issue is having to expose dirty laundry of the family and damage that it can do to family dynamics. It is an unfortunate aspect of probate litigation and could not have helped relationships for her to have testified in court that he was considered the "most useless member of society". Apparently unlike prior Astors with his name he was not a productive business person but was someone who constantly partied and got the family name in the tabloids as a result. Sadly this is why many wealthy families do not remain as wealthy over time as future generations can become lazy and a sense of entitlement if the proper estate planning and life values are not put in place and passed down to subsequent generations.
