All told, the court filings paint a picture of a blended family that is estranged over what each sees as the other’s attempt to wrongly claim more of Feinstein and her late husband’s assets.
Feinstein and Blum married in 1980, when she was still San Francisco mayor and more than a decade before she was elected to the Senate in 1992. Both were pillars of the Bay Area elite and independently wealthy — she was born into an affluent family, and Blum was a self-made investment broker.
Blum had three daughters from a prior marriage: Annette Blum, Heidi Blum, and Eileen Blum. Feinstein had one daughter, Katherine, also from a previous marriage.
Katherine Feinstein, a retired San Francisco Superior Court judge, has been at the center of the estate war. She alleges Blum’s trustees were wrongly appointed and are plotting to increase her stepsisters’ ultimate inheritance. She has filed a series of lawsuits accusing the trustees of committing “financial elder abuse” for refusing to pay the senator required annual disbursements or reimburse her medical bills.
The younger Feinstein, 66, did not respond to requests for comment. In past interviews, she has discussed the difficulties she experienced growing up as the daughter of an iconic politician. “Probably as a teenager, I was the most resentful of my mother not being like every other mother,” she told NBC Bay Area in 2014. “As time has gone on, I think we’ve gotten closer and closer,” she said.
Katherine Feinstein appears to have a strained relationship with her stepsisters. The Blum sisters have been publicly silent about the estate dispute and stand to inherit much of their father’s wealth upon the senator’s death, including his share of properties the couple jointly owned. Financial analysts estimate Blum’s net worth exceeded $1 billion.
She also alleges that the trustees have inappropriately paid for gifts to Blum’s daughters or forgiven debts while refusing to pay millions that Feinstein is entitled to from her husband’s estate. Blum’s trust documents state that he granted more than $20 million in loans to his daughters during his lifetime — to be forgiven upon his death. Each sister stands to inherit at least tens of millions more.
The two primary trustees are Michael Klein and Marc Scholvinck, both longtime business partners of the senator’s late husband. Klein was Blum’s lawyer for many years, and Scholvinck was formerly CFO at Blum Capital, his private equity firm. Klein, Scholvinck and Blum’s daughters declined interview requests through their attorney.
In their latest filing, the trustees say the senator has an annual income of about $1 million, including $125,000 she receives quarterly from another Blum trust. They place her net worth at more than $50 million.
The trustees said Feinstein submitted a reimbursement request in early June for $169,055 in medical expenses and requested her marital trust cover the $9,166 monthly salary of her security guard and caretaker. They said they did not make the payments because of Feinstein’s other income, which led them to conclude the payments weren’t necessary under the terms of the trust, according to court documents.
Steven P. Braccini, an attorney for the Blum trustees, fired back at Katherine Feinstein in a recent press statement, saying the case has nothing to do with Feinstein’s day-to-day needs and “everything to do with her daughter’s avarice.” He said the process of sorting out Blum’s estate taxes is complicated and has delayed payouts.
In another statement to reporters, Braccini said the trustees haven’t seen any evidence to prove Katherine Feinstein has power of attorney over her mother, a concern he alludes to in Wednesday’s filing.
The other character central to the dispute has been Mariano, Katherine Feinstein’s husband and a Bay Area real estate investor who once worked for Blum’s firm. He has also been at the center of the disagreement over the beach house, worth an estimated $5.6 million. The home, nestled in an exclusive gated community, overlooks a tidal lagoon and sits a stone’s throw from the Pacific, just north of San Francisco in ultra-wealthy Marin County.