Wasting [assets] Away In Margaritaville
The Wild Bunch is an iconic ’60s film, a Western film made when Westerns were fading into irrelevance, bringing a modern sensibility to the genre. It’s bloody, sarcastic, and memorable.
Early in the film, William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, and their gang rob a railroad office in a dusty Texas border town in the early 1900s. Mayhem follows—a beautifully choreographed shootout that’s been copied hundreds of times since. The gang escapes with heavy bags they believe hold enough cash to retire.
When they finally ditch their pursuers and open the bags, they’re filled with thousands of worthless steel washers. They’ve been set up. They have nothing. Holden assures his crew he’ll come up with another plan – he always has another plan – and walks in to the desert. He returns hours later with the solution: they’ll start running guns to Mexico—selling to bandits, Poncho Villa, Zapata, or whoever will pay.
Immediately, the gang’s Mexican member, Angel, says, “You expect me to help you sell guns to the men who razed my village and killed my family?”
Holden, after the briefest of pauses, “Angel, ten thousand dollars cuts a lot of family ties.”
No truer words . . . so, about a multi-million dollar empire built on cheeseburgers, margaritas, island escapism, clothing, 17 gold and platinum albums, and decades of sold out arena shows:
When Jimmy Buffett died in 2023 he left a newly written will and a marital trust funded with $275 million in assets behind. Testimony that as his fortune and fame grew, he employed the best lawyers and advisors to protect the fortune and his family for generations.
Except, it is already unraveling. All that meticulous planning and carefully structured trusts are now caught up in very public disputes while headed to courts in two very different jurisdictions.
This is where things could get really complicated and we could get lost in the many arcane technicalities of estate and trust administration . . . but we won’t because the underlying issue is singular and simple – communication. For whatever reason(s) Buffet named his wife, Jane, and his longtime accountant/business manager/financial advisor, Richard Mozenter, as co-executors. Jane is also the sole beneficiary until her death when the Buffet’s children replace her.
There is no tie-breaker, just Jane and Richard. Which is a shame because these two people not only don’t get along they appear to be speaking two different languages.
It’s all headed to court(s); the filings reveal a frayed relationship deteriorating into accusations of sabotage, secrecy, and betrayal. Jane has accused Mozenter of withholding crucial financial information, ignoring her wishes as sole beneficiary, and generally disregarding his fiduciary duties. Mozenter has reportedly told Jane to tap into her own personal estate to fund expenses—expenses which, legally, should come from the trust Buffett set up explicitly to provide for her.
Mozenter claims he’s simply protecting the estate, preserving Buffett’s legacy according to his professional judgment. Jane sees it differently: a longtime trusted advisor deliberately cutting her off, turning a blind eye to her needs and wishes—exactly what Buffett tried to avoid with his careful planning. Mozenter’s $1.7 million yearly fee hangs heavy over the whole mess.
The irony is thick: Buffett’s decades of smart estate planning, protecting wealth and legacy, is unraveling not because of a bad investment or a legal loophole—but simply because the two people he trusted most to carry out his wishes apparently despise one another.
Estate-Planning Takeaways from the Buffett Fight (Even If Your Estate Is Not $275M)
- Co-executors without a tie-breaker invite stalemate. Two signatures and no mechanism to resolve disputes is a recipe for court.
- Role clarity matters. Separate executor (administration), trustee (ongoing management), and advisor (consultant) so authority is unambiguous.
- Build a communication protocol into the documents. Required reporting cadence, what gets shared, where it lives, who approves what, and in what timeframe.
- Name a tie-breaker. Add a trust protector, independent fiduciary, or arbitration clause empowered to break deadlocks fast.
- Address compensation transparently. Define fee structures, approval rights, and caps to avoid resentment about “who gets paid what.”
- Choose jurisdictions intentionally. Multiple courts mean expense and delay. Consolidate when possible, or specify primary venue and governing law.
- Fund liquidity for immediate needs. The surviving spouse should not need to front personal funds while administrators argue.
- Plan for relationships, not just assets. Test your plan with “table-read” meetings during life so key players hear the intent and practice the process.
Practical Checklist: How to Avoid a Co-Executor Meltdown
- Pick one executor (with a named successor), or if you insist on co-executors, appoint a tie-breaker or trust protector.
- Define decision classes: routine (one signature), major (consent + timeline), emergency (executor discretion with notice).
- Write a 90-day operating memo that explains: what to pay first, who to call, how to access accounts, and where documents live.
- Set reporting rules: monthly cash summaries, quarterly investment memos, annual distributions plan, and a shared data room.
- Lock in a dispute path: mediation → binding decision by protector → limited arbitration on enumerated issues.
- Review every three years or after life events; update roles if relationships change.
FAQs: Co-Executors, Trusts, and Fiduciary Duties
What is the risk of naming co-executors?
Deadlock. If they disagree and documents do not specify a process to resolve it quickly, the estate pays for delay.
Can an executor refuse to share financial information with a beneficiary?
Executors and trustees generally owe duties of loyalty, prudence, and accounting. Withholding material information typically violates those duties and invites court intervention.
Is a high annual fee automatically unreasonable?
Not necessarily. Reasonableness depends on the scope of work, complexity, and local norms. The remedy for a disputed fee is documentation, consent procedures, and a clear review path in the documents.
What should a surviving spouse do first if cut off from trust funds?
Document requests in writing, reference the governing instrument, and—if necessary—seek a court order compelling an accounting or interim distribution. The earlier the paper trail, the better.
The Line That Should Be in Every Estate Plan
All the money, trusts, lawyers, and well-crafted documents mean as much as a bag of worthless steel washers if the people in charge refuse to communicate.