The late Jimmy Buffett and his $275 million estate, which includes a stake in his Margaritaville brand, is at the center of a bitter legal fight between widow Jane Buffett and co-trustee Richard “Rick” Mozenter.
Jane Buffett, who married the singer in 1977, made the legal filing in Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday, alleging that Mozenter, also a co-trustee of the marital trust set up for her, has been “openly hostile and adversarial” toward her and worked against her, according to the legal filing obtained by Fox News.
“Mr. Mozenter has failed to perform even the most basic tasks required of him in his role as co-trustee, including providing Mrs. Buffett with information concerning Trust assets and finances, which has left Mrs. Buffett in the dark with regard to the state of her own finances,” the filing said.
“Along the way, Mr. Mozenter has belittled, disrespected, and condescended to Mrs. Buffett in response to her reasonable requests for information she undoubtedly was entitled to receive. As a result, the majority of Mrs. Buffett’s net worth is controlled by someone she does not trust, and to whom the Trust for her benefit must pay enormous fees—more than $1.7 million in 2024 to him and his firm—no matter how badly he treats her.”
Jane’s filing claims that one month after the musician’s death, she reached out to Mozenter to find out how much she would be expected to receive from the trust going forward.
“Rather than help his recently-widowed client understand her finances, Mr. Mozenter spent the next 16 months stonewalling and making excuses for why he could not yet provide the requested information,” the filing said.
According to the filing, in February, Mozenter gave Jane an estimate that the marital trust would generate less than $2 million in net income annually, a rate of return of less than 1%.
Mozenter “acknowledged that, over the prior 18 months, Margaritaville—a company of which the Trust owns roughly 20%—had paid distributions of approximately $14 million, but he decided against including any estimate of future distributions from Margaritaville in his analysis of the Marital Trust’s future income.”
The filing stated that Mozenter told Jane that Margaritaville “continues to evaluate future business opportunities and how they deploy existing liquid assets.”
Mozenter has filed his own petition in Florida to have her removed as co-trustee and representative of the estate, according to media and lifestyle outlet The Hollywood Reporter.
Buffett landed on the Forbes billionaires list for the first time in 2023 for an empire that, along with his music, included his “Margaritaville” island escapism brand sparked by his hit 1977 song.
As chair of Margarita Holdings LLC — in which Buffett held a 28% stake — he had resorts, restaurants, casinos, cruises and merchandise.
Buffett died in 2023 following a battle with cancer.