{"id":81694,"date":"2025-07-21T22:11:16","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T22:11:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/81694\/"},"modified":"2025-07-21T22:11:16","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T22:11:16","slug":"jimmy-buffetts-widow-accuses-financial-adviser-of-breaching-fiduciary-duty-in-275m-trust-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/81694\/","title":{"rendered":"Jimmy Buffett’s widow accuses financial adviser of breaching fiduciary duty in $275M trust battle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Jimmy Buffett<\/a> \u2019s widow has accused her late husband\u2019s financial adviser of failing to administer the singer\u2019s multimillion-dollar trust in good faith and ignoring what she believed were her best interests for the $275 million estate.<\/p>\n

Jane Buffett on Monday asked a judge in West Palm Beach, Florida, to stop Richard Mozenter from trying to remove her as a trustee and instead sought an order removing him from overseeing the estate, according to court papers.<\/p>\n

Jimmy Buffett, who popularized beach bum soft rock<\/a> and created a \u201cMargaritaville\u201d empire of restaurants and resorts, died Sept. 1, 2023, at 76.<\/p>\n

His widow and Mozenter have since been embroiled in a battle over who controls the trust, with each accusing the other of mishandling funds in lawsuits filed in both California and Florida.<\/p>\n

The dispute is similar to another going on with the estate of another beloved singer, Tony Bennett<\/a>. Two of the late crooner\u2019s daughters sued their brother over his handling of the family trust.<\/p>\n

Jane Buffett’s filing on Monday accuses Mozenter of \u201crepeatedly\u201d breaching his fiduciary duty by failing to provide her with basic information about the trust’s assets and its investments while taking \u201cunreasonable fees and costs in the context of the services provided.\u201d<\/p>\n

On May 30, Jane Buffett’s lawyers provided Mozenter’s lawyers a copy of a petition they planned to file in Los Angeles Superior Court if he did not resign as cotrustee by June 2, the filing states.<\/p>\n

Mozenter’s counsel instead filed a petition June 2 in West Palm Beach, seeking Buffett’s removal as cotrustee, documents show. Jane Buffett’s complaint was filed June 3 in Los Angeles, where Mozenter is managing director at Gelfand, Rennert and Feldman LLC.<\/p>\n

\u201cNotably, Mr. Mozenter only brought this (and his other) retaliatory, baseless action after Mrs. Buffett had informed him that, absent his resignation, she would initiate litigation against him to seek his removal as co-trustee,\u201d the complaint said.<\/p>\n

Mozenter claimed in his lawsuit that Jimmy Buffett established the trust with Mozenter as an independent trustee because he was concerned about his wife’s \u201cability to manage and control his assets.\u201d<\/p>\n

The complaint filed Monday in Florida says the relationship between Jane Buffett and Mozenter is \u201cuntenable,\u201d and asks the judge to remove Mozenter as cotrustee.<\/p>\n

\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,\u201d said attorney Matt Porpora.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead, Jane is bringing the fight to Florida, where she and Jimmy called home. Jane 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 \u2014 not waste \u2014 trust assets,\u201d Porpora said.<\/p>\n

Mozenter did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Jimmy Buffett \u2019s widow has accused her late husband\u2019s financial adviser of failing…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":81695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[185,171,55862,723,55859,656,55860,55861,67,132,68,3754],"class_list":{"0":"post-81694","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-financial-adviser","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-jane-buffett","13":"tag-jimmy-buffett","14":"tag-richard-mozenter","15":"tag-trust-assets","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-west-palm-beach"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114893519875870367","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}