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Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Ind. Courts - "Simon heir aims to oust widow as sole trustee: In filing, daughter asks that bank take control of billionaire's assets" [Updated]

Updating this ILB entry from Jan. 28, 2010, Jeff Swiatek reports today in the Indianapolis Star that begins:

A Hamilton County judge has been asked to oust Bren Simon as sole trustee of her late husband's $1 billion-plus estate.

Deborah Simon filed the request Monday to put a bank in charge of overseeing the trust controlling Melvin Simon's massive holdings.
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Deborah Simon's seven-page petition says keeping Bren Simon as trustee "would be detrimental to all beneficiaries" of the estate because of the "distrust and animosity" between them.

Chief beneficiaries of the estate are Deborah Simon, her sister Cynthia Simon Skjodt and brother David Simon, who is chairman and chief executive of Simon Property Group, the Indianapolis shopping mall developer co-founded by Melvin Simon.

Hostility between the trustee and beneficiaries in an estate plan "clearly can be a basis for a court's decision to remove the trustee," the petition says.

It said a national bank or investment bank "would be best suited to manage the trust."

The petition cites Bren Simon's recent request to convert 6.5 million partnership units in the publicly traded Simon Property Group to stock or cash as an example of why a professional trust manager is needed.

"In one precipitous move, Bren Simon tendered for potential sale nearly $500 million in trust assets," said the petition, noting the move "cannot conceivably be viewed as consistent with the duties of a prudent fiduciary to preserve the value of the trust's assets for all beneficiaries."

An attorney in Minneapolis for Bren Simon, Michael V. Ciresi, said she would reply to the request to remove her as trustee in a formal response that likely will be filed in court later this week. Superior Court Judge William J. Hughes probably will hold a hearing in court on the request before making a decision, Ciresi said.

The request comes in a lawsuit by Deborah Simon alone, filed last month against Bren Simon, alleging she imposed on Melvin Simon to sign a new will last year while he was in a "weakened and susceptible state of mind" seven months before his death.

[Updated 2/6/10] From the Indianapolis Star, a brief story that begins:
Noblesville -- Bren Simon has asked a court to reject an appeal by a stepdaughter to remove her as trustee of her late husband's $1 billion-plus estate.

In a nine-page filing in Hamilton Superior Court on Friday, the widow of Melvin Simon said dissension with her stepchildren isn't a good enough reason to replace her as trustee.
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"Hostility does not itself justify removal of a trustee, especially here where the trustee was named by her late husband," the response by Simon said.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on February 3, 2010 09:25 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts