After enduring health issues that kept her away from Washington for months earlier this year, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) is currently embroiled in a legal battle seeking greater control over the finances of her late husband’s trust.
The 90-year-old California Democrat — estimated to be one of the wealthiest people in Congress — recently filed a petition with the court, requesting that her daughter, Katherine Feinstein, be appointed as a successor trustee of late husband Richard Blum’s trust. The grounds for this request were based on the fact that the current trustees have allegedly refused to reimburse Senator Feinstein’s medical expenses.
Blum, the wealthy financier and Katherine Feinstein’s stepfather who passed away last year, has left behind the trust in question. Katherine Feinstein, herself a former superior court judge and a current San Francisco fire commissioner, filed the petition on behalf of her mother.
According to the petition filed in San Francisco Superior Court, Sen. Feinstein incurred significant medical expenses and requested reimbursement from the presumed trustees of the 1996 Marital Trust. However, it came to light that Blum did not actually name the alleged trustees in the 1996 Trust, and they were not appointed in accordance with its terms.
The petition seeks the appointment of Katherine Feinstein as a successor trustee, granting her control over the trust, which includes a life insurance policy for Blum and its corresponding benefits. Feinstein’s Senate financial disclosures indicate that the trust holds a value between $1 million and $5 million. It is worth noting that her assets go beyond this trust, with Open Secrets, a government transparency group, estimating her net worth in 2018 to be over $87 million.
Feinstein argues in the court documents that Mark R. Klein and Marc Scholvinck, the current trustees who previously worked with Blum, were improperly appointed as trustees following his demise.
Attorney Steven P. Braccini, representing Klein and Scholvinck, expressed bewilderment over the filing. He emphasized that Richard Blum’s trust has never denied any disbursement to Senator Feinstein, especially for medical expenses. Furthermore, Braccini stated that he had not been presented any evidence proving that Katherine Feinstein possessed power of attorney for her mother.
The attorney also pointed out, “Katherine [has not] made it clear, either in this filing or directly to my clients, why a sitting United States senator would require someone to have power of attorney over her. While my clients are deeply concerned, we all remain hopeful that this is simply a misunderstanding that can be quickly resolved.”
Feinstein missed nearly three months of work due to shingles and experienced long-lasting side effects that partially paralyzed her face and affected her mobility.
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