For an Ailing Feinstein, a Fight Over the Family Fortune
As Dianne Feinstein, 90, struggles to function in the Senate, a dispute within her family over control of her late husband’s estate is another difficult chapter at the end of a long career.
For years, Senator Dianne Feinstein of California has been engaged in a long and painful public drama about her health and ability to do her job, as she winds down a storied career as a lawmaker and a former mayor of San Francisco.
Now, Senator Feinstein is also navigating an increasingly bitter legal and financial conflict that pits her and her daughter, Katherine Feinstein, against the three daughters of her late husband Richard C. Blum, who was a wealthy financier.
In one legal dispute, the family is fighting over what’s described as Senator Feinstein’s desire to sell a beach house in an exclusive neighborhood in Stinson Beach, north of San Francisco. In another disagreement, the two factions are at odds over access to the proceeds of Mr. Blum’s life insurance, which Senator Feinstein says she needs to pay for her growing medical expenses.
For those close to Senator Feinstein, the struggle over Mr. Blum’s estate has exacerbated a recent and regrettable chapter that has marred the twilight of a long and successful public life and that has raised concerns about her ability to manage her own affairs.
“The financial conflict is another element that makes the end of her career sad to people who have known her in the high points of her career,” said Jerry Roberts, author of the biography “Dianne Feinstein: Never Let Them See You Cry.” It was published in 1994, two years after she was elected to the Senate.
Raised in affluence, Senator Feinstein has long been among the wealthiest members of Congress. She was rich in her own right in 1980 when she married Mr. Blum. After she entered the Senate, she placed securities into a blind trust that is valued at between $5 million and $25 million, according to her most recent financial disclosure required of lawmakers.
Combined, the couple’s fortunes flourished to an extent that eclipsed even the senator’s prior standard of living. Her main residence is a 9,500-square-foot mansion in the upscale San Francisco neighborhood of Pacific Heights. Their vacation homes, until recently, included the 36-acre Bear Paw Ranch in Aspen, Colo., which sold in March for more than $25 million, and a seven-bedroom Lake Tahoe compound that sold in late 2021 for a reported $36 million. Current holdings include a property on the Hawaii island of Kauai and a home in Washington, D.C.
Read more: Dianne Feinstein, 90
