The Late Senator Dianne Feinstein’s Estate Ensnared In Legal Fight

Senator Dianne Feinstein died on September 28. With a net worth of $110 million, at the time of her death Dianne was one of the richest members of Congress. A lifelong public servant, the vast majority of her wealth came thanks to her marriage to financier Richard Blum. Blum died in February of 2022.

Roughly half of the couple’s wealth was made up of real estate assets. Among their most impressive assets were:

• 9,500 square foot San Francisco mansion
• 36-acre ranch in Aspen
• 7-bedroom mansion in Lake Tahoe
• A mansion in Washington D.C.
• A mansion on the Hawaiian island of Kauai
• A beach house in the Marin County town of Stinson Beach

In the years following Richard’s death, Dianne sold the Aspen ranch for $25 million and the Lake Tahoe mansion for $33 million.

In the months following her death, Dianne and Richard’s heirs have been ensnared in a bitter legal fight over many assets. For example, that last bullet point:

• A beach house in the Marin County town of Stinson Beach

At least three lawsuits have been filed over that house alone. On one side of the case is Dianne’s daughter from a previous marriage, a lawyer and judge named Katherine Feinstein. On the other side are Richard Blum’s three daughters from a previous marriage. As recently as September of this year, in her mother’s final weeks, Katherine was filing motions to seek permission to sell the beach house to help cover medical and other expenses. For example, late in life Dianne was spending $9,000 per month for security and a personal caretaker. In June of 2023 Dianne sought reimbursement of $170,000 from Blum’s estate to reimburse medical expenses.

Michael Klein is one of two co-trustees of the Blum/Feinstein estate. The other trustee is Katherine Feinstein. Klein just filed yet another lawsuit related to the Stinson Beach home. This latest lawsuit seeks to have Katherine removed as the other trustee. Klein accuses her of trying to sell the Stinson Beach home without proper authorization after having changed the locks on the property on her own authority.

The 3,500-square-foot residence was reportedly listed as “coming soon” on multiple listing services with an asking price of $8.5 million after a judge ordered the matter of the home’s sale go into mediation. A video tour of the home also made its way online:

Klein is seeking to gain sole control over the Stinson Beach property, “an old BMW” and other vehicles as well as what was reported to be “an extensive art collection.”

The suit accuses Katherine Feinstein of having made “an attempt to increase Ms. K. Feinstein’s own inheritance during the remaining months of her mother’s life. Not only did she ignore the personal toll this very public litigation took on Senator Feinstein, but she also ignored that there are other beneficiaries of the Joint Property Trust.“