{"id":41573,"date":"2025-07-22T04:34:30","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T04:34:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/22\/jimmy-buffetts-widow-accuses-trustee-of-wasting-money-to-fight-her\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T04:34:30","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T04:34:30","slug":"jimmy-buffetts-widow-accuses-trustee-of-wasting-money-to-fight-her","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/22\/jimmy-buffetts-widow-accuses-trustee-of-wasting-money-to-fight-her\/","title":{"rendered":"Jimmy Buffett\u2019s Widow Accuses Trustee of ‘Wasting’ Money to Fight Her"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n\tJimmy Buffett<\/a>\u2019s widow claims her late husband\u2019s financial adviser \u201craced to court\u201d to sue her last month as part of a \u201cretaliatory\u201d campaign \u201cclearly intended to drain\u201d assets from her $275 million marital trust and force her to back down from seeking his removal as her trust\u2019s independent manager.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn new counterclaims filed Monday, Jane Buffett says she\u2019s voluntarily dismissing the dueling lawsuit<\/a> she filed against accountant Richard Mozenter in California on June 3 so she can \u201cstreamline\u201d and consolidate their legal war in the Palm Beach County courthouse where Mozenter preemptively sued her on June 2.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn his Florida lawsuit, Mozenter alleged that Jimmy Buffett established the marital trust with Mozenter at the helm because he was concerned about Jane\u2019s \u201cability to manage and control his assets.\u201d Mozenter is seeking to remove Jane from any position of power over the trust set aside for her sole benefit during her lifetime.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn her competing filings, Jane and her lawyers argue it would be easy to replace Mozenter with someone Jane gets along with and trusts. They also argue Jane\u2019s readiness to litigate in Florida, the forum chosen by Mozenter, proves she\u2019s the one paying attention to \u201cunnecessary waste\u201d of her resources. They claim Mozenter, by contrast, has engaged in a \u201cpattern of evasive conduct\u201d and \u201cbreached his fiduciary duty\u201d to act in her best interests.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cJane will not play into Mr. Mozenter\u2019s hands by litigating this dispute in two separate courts across the country, which would drain the very trust money that Jimmy specifically set aside for her care. Instead, Jane is bringing the fight to Florida, where she and Jimmy called home,\u201d Jane\u2019s lawyer, Matt Porpora from Sullivan and Cromwell, said in a statement shared with Rolling Stone<\/em>. \u201cJane is confident she will prevail regardless of where her claims are heard, and her decision to move her claims from California to Florida illustrates that she is the only co-trustee looking to conserve\u2014not waste\u2014trust assets.\u201d (Lawyers representing Mozenter did not respond to a request for comment.)<\/p>\n

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\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n

\n\tJimmy Buffett, the singer-songwriter known for his laid-back, Caribbean-infused soft rock and transforming his 1977 hit \u201cMargaritaville<\/a>\u201d into a resorts and dining empire, was 76 when he died<\/a> on Sept. 1, 2023. He wrote the song \u201cCome Monday\u201d about Jane in 1974, and they were married in 1977.<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter Buffett\u2019s death, when Jane asked Mozenter how much income she could expect to receive from the trust to continue paying her bills, Mozenter allegedly took more than a year to respond. In February 2025, he allegedly told her the trust\u2019s $275 million in assets would generate less than $2 million in net income annually \u2014 a rate of return representing less than one percent. Mozenter purportedly told her the income would not cover her annual expenses and advised that she \u201cconsider adjustments\u201d or sell her own real estate to make up the difference, her filings claim.<\/p>\n

\n\tMeanwhile, Mozenter allegedly used trust assets to pay $1.7 million to himself and his firm last year, according to Jane\u2019s filings. \u201cAlong 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,\u201d her Monday filing states.<\/p>\n

\n\tJane alleges Mozenter rushed to court and filed his June 2 lawsuit after her lawyers first shared a courtesy copy of a petition she planned to file against him in Los Angeles County Superior Court. She alleges his lawsuit seeking to maintain authority over her wealth in violation of her express wishes \u201cmakes no sense\u201d and \u201cconfirms that they cannot co-exist as co-trustees.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n

\n\t\u201cContrary to the instruction to give \u2018primary regard\u2019 to Mrs. Buffett\u2019s best interests, Mr. Mozenter consistently has acted as if Mrs. Buffett is a nuisance whose interests are secondary to his authority,\u201d the new filing states. Jane alleges Mozenter has been \u201copenly hostile\u201d toward her while \u201cwasting marital trust assets by litigating in multiple forums.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tA hearing in Jane\u2019s California lawsuit is currently set for Aug. 14 but likely will be taken off calendar if Jane dismisses the Los Angeles County action as promised in her new Florida filing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jimmy Buffett\u2019s widow claims her late husband\u2019s financial adviser \u201craced to court\u201d to sue her last month as part of a \u201cretaliatory\u201d campaign \u201cclearly…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":41574,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop","article","has-excerpt","has-avatar","has-author","has-date","has-comment-count","has-category-meta","has-read-more","thumbnail-"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}