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186: Jimmy Buffett’s $275M Trust Battle: Why Co-Trustees Can Destroy Your Estate Plan

July 10, 2025

In this episode of Absolute Trust Talk, California estate planning attorney Kirsten Howe examines the explosive trust dispute erupting over Jimmy Buffett’s $275 million estate. When the legendary Margaritaville songwriter passed away, he left his fortune in an irrevocable trust with his widow Jane Buffett and co-trustee Richard Mozenter managing the assets together. Now they’re locked in competing estate litigation across Florida and California, each seeking to remove the other as trustee through costly court battles.

This high-profile celebrity estate case illustrates why co-trustees in estate planning often create more problems than solutions. Walnut Creek estate planning attorney Kirsten analyzes how a quarter-billion-dollar trust generating only $2 million annually raises serious trust performance red flags and reveals why 25% of estate planning clients make this same dangerous trustee selection mistake. The key estate planning lesson: co-trustees must agree on every trust administration decision, and when trustee disagreements arise, expensive estate litigation almost always becomes inevitable.

Time-stamped Show Notes:

0:00 Introduction

0:52 Jimmy Buffett left his $275 million estate in a trust managed by his wife Jane and co-trustee Richard Mozenter, but they’re now locked in bitter legal warfare.

1:30 Legal battle erupts across two states as Richard sues Jane in Florida, claiming she’s uncooperative, while Jane countersues in California, alleging he withholds financial information.

3:10 Why is a $275 million trust only generating $2 million annually for Jane, and can this income sustain the wealthy lifestyle she’s maintained for decades?

4:35 Learn why co-trustees create inevitable disaster when two people must agree on every decision, and disagreements force expensive court intervention.

5:15 The simple solution that prevents family warfare – choose one trusted person instead of co-trustees to avoid years of costly litigation.

Transcript:

Hello and welcome to Absolute Trust Talk. This is our video podcast here at Absolute Trust Council, and I’m Kirsten Howe, the managing attorney in the law firm. Today, we’re going to do one of my favorite types of episodes, which is a celebrity estate planning mistakes episode. We’re going to be talking about Jimmy Buffett’s estate.

Jimmy Buffett was a songwriter and recording artist. He had a lot of famous songs—Margaritaville, probably the most famous—back in the 70s and 80s, a long time ago, but I remember them well. Anyway, he passed away last year and left an estate that’s estimated to be worth about $275 million to his wife, Jane Buffett. For her benefit, $275 million was put into a trust. He left it in a trust, so he did not leave it to her outright. It’s in an irrevocable trust now.

Jane and another gentleman named Richard Mozenter were named as co-trustees of this trust for Jane’s benefit, and they are not getting along. What a surprise.

So, what happened last week? Why are we talking about it today? What happened is Richard Mozenter filed a lawsuit against Jane in Florida, presumably that’s where Jane lives, alleging that she has been difficult, she’s stood in the way of getting things done, she’s made it impossible for the trustees—meaning the two of them together—to do their job. She’s been uncooperative, and he’s asking that she be removed as a co-trustee.

Also, Jane Buffett filed a lawsuit in California, presumably because that’s where Richard Mozenter is located, basically asking for the same thing—asking that he be removed as her co-trustee. She made some slightly different allegations, but hers were more along the lines of “he’s not sharing information with me. I still don’t know what the financials are.” And also, she has made some claims that the assets are not productive enough. In other words, he’s not giving her enough money out of this trust.

I read that she had been told that her annual income from this trust was going to be about $2 million, which, you know, I could pretty easily live off $2 million a year, and I suspect most of my listeners also could. But two things: she’s been a very wealthy woman for a lot of years, and maybe $2 million isn’t enough to cover her lifestyle, the lifestyle to which she’s become accustomed, the lifestyle that I’m sure her husband would want her to continue to have. And the other thing is, when you think about $275 million and that’s all the income they can produce, which is $2 million a year, there’s something not quite right there.

But anyway, those kinds of complaints about “there’s not enough income”—that’s really Jane as a beneficiary complaining. The stuff where she’s saying “he’s not sharing information with me. We aren’t getting along. It’s difficult. Things aren’t happening”—that is a co-trustee complaint. So, I think there are a couple of things going on with Jane’s complaint.

But the bottom line is, and here’s the lesson—this is why we’re here today talking about them—co-trustees can be a very, very bad idea. I would say maybe 20 to 25% of the time, clients, new clients, will come in and we’re doing their planning, and they’ll say, “Well, can I name two people to be trustees?” And my response is, “Yes, you can. It’s legal.” But it can be very problematic, because when people are co-trustees, they have to do everything together, and they have to make every decision together. They have to agree. And when they get to a point where they can’t agree on something, or they’re not getting along, their recourse is to go to court and get a judge to sort it all out. It can be very difficult, and there’s no need for it.

Just name one person that you know will do the job. They’re not going to procrastinate, they’re going to be honest, they’re going to do the right thing. Name one person.

I don’t know what the outcome here is going to be. We’ve got two competing lawsuits in two different jurisdictions basically asking for the same thing—to remove a co-trustee. I don’t know which one’s going to win, or maybe they’ll both lose. Maybe the end result is that another person will be the trustee. We’ll keep watching, and we’ll keep you up to date as things happen. But just take this lesson. It’s serious. Don’t name co-trustees. It can be a very bad idea.

All right, I hope you enjoyed this. I hope you learned a little bit. I hope you take it to heart and keep it in mind when you’re doing your own planning. Thanks very much for watching, and I look forward to connecting with you next time.

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Categories: California Estate Planning, Celebrity Estates, Co-Trustees, Estate Litigation, Estate Planning, Jimmy Buffet, Margaritaville Estate, Podcasts, Trust Administration, Trust Disputes, Trustee Selection Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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