Who Gets Trouble’s Fortune? World’s Richest Dog Dies

• Tweet

• Tweet

Trouble was too short to pull this off.

When an aging millionaire dies in Florida, it isn’t always news. When that millionaire is a dog, people notice.

Trouble, the impeccably groomed Maltese who once belonged to Leona Helmsley, has died today at the age of twelve. In 2007, it was widely reported that Helmsley’s Last Will specified that she had left a whopping twelve million dollars to her pooch, a significant amount that was more than she gifted to many of her surviving (human) family members. In fact, the so-called “Queen of Mean” shut out two of her grandchildren from her Will, giving them no money or property “for reasons which are known to them.”

Of course, this begs the question: just how do you leave $12 million to a dog? It’s not as if Trouble could walk into a bank and fill out a deposit slip, though we’d certainly enjoy watching that if she could.

What Helmsley did was set up a trust. And although Trouble’s windfall was eventually reduced to $2 million by a Manhattan judge, the dog still enjoyed the high life. It had an $8,000 a year grooming budget and a full-time security guard. And if you think the bodyguard was going a little overboard, keep in mind that the Maltese received kidnapping and death threats.

Seriously.

Now that Trouble has passed away, there are a couple legal issues worth thinking about. The first is her burial. Helmsley wanted her dog interred at her side, but New York law forbids animal remains in human burial grounds. The second is what happens to the money Trouble’s handlers didn’t spend. This is a trickier one. Unlike wills, trusts are not public documents, so the destination of Trouble’s unspent cash is, at this point, speculation. Helmsley set up a number of charitable trusts before she died and it’s probable that Trouble’s money will end up in one of those. Reportedly, the trusts she set up for her brother and grandchildren were administered this way.

Addendum:

You might read news stories in the next few days noting that Trouble wasn’t the world’s richest dog. A German Shepard named Gunther IV supposedly has a full $372 million in its trust. But there is serious doubt about whether Gunther actually exists. According to the Daily Mail:

All “serious inquiries” about Gunther’s financial affairs are directed to the offices of Messrs Dupuch & Turnquest & Co Chambers, a law firm based in Nassau in the Bahamas. They do exist.

But when the Daily Mail spoke to them yesterday they said: “There was a dog once and Mr Dupuch helped handle his affairs. But Mr Dupuch died some time ago and we haven’t heard from Gunther IV.”

Related articles

• Five Very Bizarre but Very True Legal Wills (press.rocketlawyer.com)
• Dog-friendly groups fight over Leona Helmsley’s fortune (nydailynews.com)
• Trouble, Beloved Dog Of Leona Helmsley, Has Died (newyork.cbslocal.com)