From the Los Angeles Times
Teresa Heinz Kerry, through a network of investments in blue-chip
cor****ations, venture capital funds and municipal bonds, controls a family
fortune worth an estimated $1 billion, an examination of public records
shows.
The $1-billion figure is double the estimates of her wealth that are
widely
cited in news stories about her husband, Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry,
the presumptive Democratic nominee for president.
The couple would rank as the wealthiest to occupy the White House, far
surpassing such storied presidential fortunes as the Kennedys'. Their
assets
are so vast and far-reaching that they mirror the U.S. economy, and will
likely raise questions about conflicts of interest.
"She represents a new ballgame in terms of her wealth and in terms of the
wealth she controls," said Kevin Phillips, a political commentator and
author of the history "Wealth and Democracy."
Heinz Kerry's investments, worth an estimated $500 million in 1995, have
grown over the last nine years to $1 billion or more, even accounting for
large living expenses and charitable contributions, according to an
analysis
of Securities and Exchange Commission filings, Senate financial disclosure
re****ts, probate documents and other public records.
Since key details of Heinz Kerry's investments are not in the public
record,
a precise valuation is not possible. The Times analysis produced estimates
as low as $900 million and as high as $3.2 billion.
Three senior executives at investment firms that handle accounts for
wealthy
clients reviewed The Times' study and said the $1-billion valuation was a
fair and conservative estimate.
Heinz Kerry has declined requests by The Times in recent months for
interviews. Campaign representatives for Sen. Kerry and his wife said the
couple regarded their assets as private. The representatives also declined
to provide answers to written questions over the last two weeks.
Heinz Kerry's money is actively managed every day of the year, providing
capital to Gannett, Anheuser-Busch, Pfizer and Procter & Gamble, among
many
others. It helps finance municipal sewer systems, technology start-ups,
schools and more.
The trust accounts are held at Mellon Financial Corp., the Pittsburgh
institution that has long handled the affairs of the Heinz family. She
inherited the family's fortune in the food business 13 years ago.
In 2003, the Heinz trusts made 890 trades in stocks, bonds, funds and
other
investments — more than three trades for every day that securities markets
were open. In dozens of cases, the trades were for assets valued above $1
million, and scores of other trades involved assets worth hundreds of
thousands of dollars.
Heinz Kerry's net worth is usually estimated at half a billion dollars,
though these estimates are not explained in documentation. In its latest
annual ranking, Forbes magazine did not include her among the world's
billionaires; the last time the magazine estimated her wealth was in 2002,
when it said she was worth $550 million.
But The Times examined financial disclosures as far back as 1982 filed by
Sen. John Heinz (R-Pa.), who died in 1991, and Kerry. In 1995, H.J. Heinz
Co. filed an SEC document that showed Heinz Kerry was the beneficiary of
trusts that held $400 million of Heinz stock. Separately in 1995, the year
they married, Kerry filed a Senate disclosure re****t that showed Heinz
Kerry
had other assets worth an estimated $100 million.
The Times examined the ****tfolio of stocks and bonds for each year since
1995, and concluded that it grew to roughly $1.3 billion, in part by
diversifying out of Heinz stock.
Records and public statements show that charitable contributions and
family
living expenses could have drained no more than $300 million out of the
trust fund. Last month, she disclosed that she had income of about $5.1
million in 2003, apparently representing some of the income generated by
the
trusts.
"If you had $500 million in 1995, I don't see how you couldn't be close to
$1 billion today with any reasonable equity strategy," said L. David
Tisdale, chief executive of Starbuck, Tisdale & Associates, a Santa
Barbara
investment advisor who reviewed The Times' work.
Certainly, the Kerrys would be among the richest families to ever occupy
the
White House, eclipsing even President Kennedy and well ahead of the other
moneyed chief executives over the last century.
When Franklin D. Roosevelt died in office, he left an estate valued at $1
million, according to his presidential library. That would be worth about
$11 million today when adjusted for inflation. Herbert Hoover had roughly
$8
million when he entered office in 1929, according to archivists at the
Hoover presidential library — an amount worth $88 million today.
Lyndon B. Johnson was worth an estimated $14 million in 1966, Life
magazine
said at the time. That would be worth $82 million today. The magazine
Trusts
& Estates estimated Johnson's worth at $20 million in 1973, worth $85
million today.
President Bush's disclosure statement shows assets estimated by The Times
at
about $13 million, including his large ranch in Texas. The value of the
Bush
family assets, managed by former President George H.W. Bush, is not known.
The most difficult former president to assess is Kennedy, whose father,
Joseph P. Kennedy, was still alive during his presidency and was worth
perhaps $200 million to $400 million, according to historians at the
Kennedy
library — an amount equal to $1.3 billion to $2.6 billion when adjusted
for
inflation.
President Kennedy's share of the income from the Kennedy trust was
$500,000
annually, according to the book "Wills of the Presidents." Political
experts
say that Kennedy was personally worth perhaps only $20 million when he was
elected president, or $124 million today. But Kennedy enjoyed the largess
of
his father, including payments for his wife's personal expenses, the use
of
family yachts, and access to estates in Cape Cod and Florida.
If Kerry is elected, he will join a long list of presidents who were
helped
by their wife's wealth. Thomas Jefferson, John Tyler, LBJ and William
McKinley also married into wealth, said Carl Sferrazza Anthony, a leading
authority on first ladies.
"George Wa****ngton married the wealthiest woman in the colony of
Virginia,"
he added.
Heinz Kerry inherited a vast fortune from Sen. Heinz, who was killed in a
1991 private aircraft accident. Heinz, formally H.J. Heinz III, was the
fourth generation of the Pittsburgh family famous for its ketchup and
other
food products.
The money is held mainly by seven trust funds and several other investment
accounts set up to benefit her and her three children, as well as to
provide
for charitable contributions. Heinz Kerry's money is generally kept
separate
from her husband's, according to the Senate disclosure re****t.
The business affairs are managed by the Heinz Family Office, located in an
upscale office building just two blocks from the White House on
Pennsylvania
Avenue. Besides overseeing the family business, the office helps manage
Heinz Kerry's many public policy programs.
In addition to her family holdings, Heinz Kerry controls three large
nonprofit cor****ations in Pittsburgh and Wa****ngton that have a combined
$1.2 billion in assets, according to Internal Revenue Service filings.
They
have a wide-ranging agenda, sup****ting the arts, education, women's
health,
the environment and much more.
Tax records show that she supplements those activities with separate money
from family trusts. For example, she provides at least $6.5 million
annually
to the Heinz Family Foundation, a nonprofit cor****ation, to help its
activities.
She also separately sup****ts half a dozen programs that involve
environmentalism and archeology in another unregistered organization — the
Teresa and H. John Heinz III Foundation — that does not file tax returns.
Political experts predict the Kerrys will be compelled to disclose more
about their assets and perhaps place them in a blind trust if Kerry wins
the
election.
Heinz Kerry has not said whether she will continue to oversee her personal
assets or the family trusts if Kerry is elected. A Kerry spokesman said
Friday that these issues had yet to be seriously considered. However, she
has said repeatedly that she would not step down from her leader****p of
her
philanthropic cor****ations.
A key issue is whether a Kerry presidency would be hobbled by conflicts of
interest or the appearance of them because of her holdings or active
trading. "It is hard to imagine that it would not cause conflicts," said
Phillips, the author. "They should have thought of this long ago."
Leon E. Panetta, White House chief of staff under President Clinton,
agreed
that although the amount of Heinz Kerry's wealth was not a campaign issue,
it could cause problems if Kerry were elected.
"They will have to seriously consider putting it in a blind trust,"
Panetta
said. "All of us who have served in government have had to do that. In the
end, it is the better way to go, because it removes any suspicion that a
decision is self-serving. You have enough problems just making a decision,
without dealing with the concern you may be putting money in your pocket."
(Trusts are legal vehicles dating back hundreds of years that hold assets
for the benefit of others. They are generally used by the wealthy to
minimize taxes and eliminate long probate proceedings. A blind trust puts
management of money outside the view of its beneficiaries.)
No specific law requires the president, much less the first lady, to put
assets in a blind trust, said Stan Brand, a federal government ethics
expert
and Wa****ngton attorney. In fact, federal law says almost nothing about
the
first lady, though she does get protection and funding for an office.
Since Heinz Kerry owns such a broad ****tfolio of U.S. and foreign stocks,
the actions of a Kerry administration could have a daily effect on
companies
in which his wife has millions of dollars invested, said Robert M. Stern,
a
financial disclosure expert and president of the Center for Governmental
Studies.
"Almost any decision Kerry makes will affect one of her companies," Stern
said. "It might help the situation if the wealth were put into a blind
trust."
President Bush has placed his assets in a trust that is invested almost
exclusively in certificates of deposit, according to his financial
disclosure statement on file with the federal Office of Government Ethics.
Political experts say Americans have a natural curiosity about the
personal
wealth of their leaders, though it seldom becomes a central political
issue.
Far from holding grudges against the rich, voters often elect wealthy
individuals and even admire their lifestyles, the experts say.
Heinz Kerry owns a Gulfstream jet and several properties around the
country,
including a $5-million ski chalet in Idaho, a $9-million oceanfront summer
house in Nantucket, Mass., and a $4-million estate in western
Pennsylvania.
After marrying nine years ago, the couple purchased a five-story mansion
assessed at $6.9 million in one of Boston's poshest neighborhoods.
For all the wealth, however, the couple does not live ostentatiously,
according to friends and associates. Among Heinz Kerry's vehicles is a
1989
Jeep that she keeps in Idaho, state records show. "If you go to Teresa's
homes, you could take the furniture and put it in any home," Jeffrey
Lewis,
chief of staff for Heinz Kerry, said in an earlier interview. "It is
comfortable, not ostentatious."
Maxwell King is president of the Heinz Kerry endowments in Pittsburgh. He
said the 65-year-old heiress, who was born in Mozambique to a prominent
doctor and was educated in South Africa and later Geneva, has her mind on
many matters other than her wealth.
"For some people, having great wealth is a heavy burden," said King, a
former editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer. "She doesn't carry it heavily
at
all. She has a pragmatic view of her money. She doesn't view it as
im****tant, but as a vehicle to do things. She holds close to Heinz
values."
The Heinz family has long been known for its philanthropy, and Heinz Kerry
is but one wing of a family that has funded art museums, scholar****ps,
university chairs, charities for the poor, hospitals, literary awards,
symphonies, public service television, programs for women's health,
architectural competitions and much more.
Still, the fortune helped elect Sen. Heinz, and it has played a limited
but
key role in Kerry's primary campaign.
At a pivotal juncture, Kerry took out a $6.4-million loan in December on
the
Boston property. The big loan, requiring interest payments that exceed
Kerry's Senate salary of $154,700, is nearly as much as the assessed value
of the property. It came from Mellon Trust of New England.
"It was absolutely necessary for him to do that, and the wealth at that
point helped him," said James Thurber, director of the Center for
Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University in
Wa****ngton.
"It was not an issue in the primaries, and I do not think it will become
an
issue in the campaign. There is so much money rolling in now from small
contributions that he doesn't need to go to the personal wealth."
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Let the name calling begin!!! (its all you libs have)
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