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Honored Contributor
Posts: 18,415
Registered: ‎11-25-2011

Re: Gloria Vanderbilt Leaves Son Anderson Cooper Bulk Of Her Estate


@Ceci wrote:

I read today that her estate was small, 1.2 million. That is what Anderson got. The other son got the condo which is worth a lot of money. They didn't state the amount.

 

Anderson is worth over 4 million on his own. So what was left of his mothers estate was small.

 


@Ceci 

It’s reported that Anderson’s net worth is $110 Million,

with his CNN salary of $12 Million.

—————

 

I don’t see him retiring any time soon.

He’s the best in the business..in the coveted nighttime slot 

on a news station with sets the Gold Standard of news

reporting....so it would be huge if he decided to step down. 

Honored Contributor
Posts: 17,739
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: Gloria Vanderbilt Leaves Son Anderson Cooper Bulk Of Her Estate

The apartment alone was worth 1.2 million. I am sure she left a tidy sum for Anderson. Her paintings  alone will most likely escalate in value

 

 

 

Gloria Vanderbilt left behind an impressive inheritance for her son, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, following her death last month. Her will was filed in a Manhattan surrogate court on Monday, and according to a report by Fox News, it leaves almost everything she owned to Cooper. One of Vanderbilt's other sons gets nothing.

Vanderbilt passed away on June 17, at the age of 95. She left behind a small inherited fortune, as well as three sons. However, they will not share in her wealth evenly. Most of Vanderbilt's property and holdings will pass to Cooper, while her eldest son, Leopold "Stan" Stokowski, will reportedly get her lavish apartment in midtown Manhattan.

 

The apartment is in a co-op at 30 Beekman Place, of which Vanderbilt reportedly owned 210 shares. She lived there in New York City for a long time herself. According to StreetEasy, the apartment is worth about $1.2 million today.

Meanwhile, Vanderbilt left nothing to her middle son, Chris Stokowski. She was reportedly estranged from him before her death, and had not spoken to him for 40 years. Stokowski cut off all contact with his famous family in 1978, claiming that his mother's therapist was trying to "meddle" in his love life. He was 26 years old at the time. Stokowski and his older brother come from Vanderbilt's marriage to famed orchestra conductor Leopold Stokowski, from 1945 to 1955.

 

Years later, Vanderbilt remarried to Wyatt Emory Cooper, her fourth husband. They had two sons -- Carter and Anderson. Carter passed away at the age of 22 due to an apparent suicide, leaving Anderson Cooper as one of Vanderbilt's three surviving heirs.

In spite of his alienation from the family, Cooper was reportedly close with Christopher Stokowski when they were young. Stokowski was 15 years older than his half-brother, and his former fiance, April Sandmeyer, told The Daily Mail that he Christopher "spoiled" Cooper "rotten."

 

"Anderson was only 10 when his daddy died and his adored older half-brother disappeared. It’s heart breaking," she said in 2014.

0comments

Gloria Vanderbilt was the great-great-great granddaughter of railroad tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt, and she inherited a family fortune that stretched back to the 1700s. Not one to rest on her laurels, however, she made a name for herself as an artist and fashion designer, and is credited with helping to popular denim the United States.

Vanderbilt did not see the same level of success as her ancestors, and she was not able to leave a trust fund of the same magnitude for her children. Still, it sounds like at least two of her sons will be secure for the rest of their lives.

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 5,496
Registered: ‎01-14-2017

Re: Gloria Vanderbilt Leaves Son Anderson Cooper Bulk Of Her Estate

@RoughDraft my understanding is that the $200 million report comes from the NY Post Page 6, shich states "it has been reported".  This is a gossip column, not a reliable source.  Of course they may be right, I don't know!!!!  At best as I can tell, the $200 million estimate is as per this Forbes article --

 

"The Vanderbilts are one of America’s legendarily wealthy families. Gloria Vanderbilt was the descendent of railroad tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt. The family’s fortune, worth $200 million in the late 1800s, gradually diluted over the decades by increased spending (both philanthropic and wasteful) and a decline in their railroad business. In April 2014, during an interview for Howard Stern’s radio show, Cooper said, “My mom’s made clear to me that there’s no trust fund

"Key Background: Gloria Vanderbilt was born a millionaire on February 20, 1924, with a $2.5 million trust fund, equivalent to $35 million today, from the family coffers. (She wasn't allowed access to the money, however, until she turned 21. Her mother could withdraw $50,000 annually.) As a businesswoman, Gloria had careers as an artist, a model, a playwright and an actress. It was in the 1970s that Gloria came into her own money, with a fashion line of denim jeans that she herself modeled in now-iconic advertisements."

I read somewhere else that her apartment was worth less than $2million (about average by NYC Manhattan standards, we are in a depressed real estate market because of the change in the tax laws), so maybe the rest of her fortune is worth more than that.

 

It sounds like we will find out, so we won't have to speculate.

 

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 6,504
Registered: ‎05-22-2014

Re: Gloria Vanderbilt Leaves Son Anderson Cooper Bulk Of Her Estate

What a sad story.  It goes to prove that having a vast fortune does not insulate you from having heartbreaking problems.  In fact, sometimes it helps to create more problems.  That is one problem I will never have, unless I win the lottery.  

Trusted Contributor
Posts: 1,927
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

Re: Gloria Vanderbilt Leaves Son Anderson Cooper Bulk Of Her Estate

At this point, we really do not know the value of her estate; how much (if any) would be due in taxes; prior bequests/ transfers. 

 

Sometimes being the heir to the residuary (out of which expenses and taxes are typically paid) does not add up to much.

 

It would not surprise me if Anderson's net worth is more than his mother's estate.

Do the math.
Valued Contributor
Posts: 744
Registered: ‎05-31-2018

Re: Gloria Vanderbilt Leaves Son Anderson Cooper Bulk Of Her Estate

My mother did everything in her power while she was alive to make sure her own children hated each other.  She left everything to me in her will.  According to my Aunt, her sister, she did that because she wanted my child, her only grandchild to have everything.

 

I let my siblings take whatever they wanted, even if I wanted it.  I sold her house and split the money 4 ways to include my son.  I sold her ugly jewelry and used the money for her cremation and split the rest.

 

I was left to do all this on my own.  My siblings are under the impression that I am sitting on millions.  Instead I have a closet full of artwork that she paid a lot of money for. No one wants to buy it and siblings don't want it, but feel it's worth a lot and I am holding out on them.

 

My sister hasn't spoken to me in 3 years and my brother for one year.  

 

So i wish Anderson well.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 37,847
Registered: ‎06-11-2011

Re: Gloria Vanderbilt Leaves Son Anderson Cooper Bulk Of Her Estate

According to today's NY Post, Anderson isn't getting much.  In fact, one of the sons with Leopold S. is getting more.  From Page Six of the NYP:

 

[Although he was left the bulk of her estate after another son got her apartment], "...[P]robate documents filed after the socialite’s death in June reveal that Cooper will actually receive less than $1.5 million — the total value of her estate at the time of her death. ...Prominent NYC lawyer Herbert E. Nass told Page Six, “It is noteworthy that Gloria didn’t leave hardly anything to Anderson, when it was assumed he would get most of her estate. Her eldest son inherited her biggest asset, her apartment, and there does not appear to be much else left, according to the probate document.”

 

 

Super Contributor
Posts: 261
Registered: ‎12-28-2015

Re: Gloria Vanderbilt Leaves Son Anderson Cooper Bulk Of Her Estate

I just saw that also.  It said most of her fortune was lost on legal bills and tax problems from her business ventures.  Sad, but Anderson Cooper luckily is a wealthy man on his own.