Dallas billionaire Harold Simmons’ widow seeks to keep his will secret
- Published:
- Updated:
Harold Simmons’ headline-making business, philanthropic and political moves were usually accompanied by eye-popping dollar figures.
His estate’s bottom line, however, seems less likely to reach the public when the Dallas billionaire’s probate case is settled. His widow, Annette Simmons, has received a temporary order sealing the will and the case documents.
A hearing is scheduled for Jan. 29 in a Dallas County probate court to determine whether they should be permanently sealed.
Ike Vanden Eykel, CEO of KoonsFuller and an attorney specializing in family law, said the case is a balancing act between the public’s right to know and a family’s right to privacy. That’s often a tension in family law cases, which frequently deal with sensitive personal and financial information.
“The judges have the delicate task of balancing those two rights,” he said. “There is rarely a clear-cut divider there.”
Philip Bush, a partner with Locke Lord, the firm that’s representing Simmons’ wife, said this is no different from similar cases.
“It really has to do with concerns over the personal safety and security of the heirs, and frankly, also the safety of the assets of the estate,” he said.
Bush said he could not elaborate.
Simmons had been a public figure since the 1970s, when he was feared and respected as a corporate raider. There were occasional battles with regulators over his business dealings and a bitter fight with two of his daughters over a family trust that ended with a $100 million settlement.
He also became one of the most prolific conservative political donors, giving to causes from Oliver North’s Senate campaign to the Swift Boat attacks on John Kerry.
Simmons also gained fame for donating hundreds of millions of dollars to UT Southwestern Medical Center and Parkland Memorial Hospital and millions more to other institutions.
Johnny Rex Buckles, professor of law at the University of Houston Law Center, said there’s a general expectation in state law that a will is a public document. For that reason, some wealthy families use certain types of trusts to keep financial details of their estates private.
Such trusts are “not a matter of public record,” he said. “That’s one of the reasons some people prefer to transfer the bulk of their estate other than by will.”
Simmons did have large family trusts. But it’s not clear how his estate was divided.
Rebekah Brooker, a Dallas attorney with Passman & Jones and adviser to the State Bar of Texas family and probate committee, said sealing the documents isn’t a concern among ordinary families. But the wealthy sometimes make such a request of a judge.
“With a successful business enterprise — like Contran — involved, there may even be confidential or proprietary business information, documents or holdings at stake,” Brooker said in an email. “That increases the likelihood that the family will be able to show a specific, serious and substantial interest in keeping Mr. Simmons’ estate sealed.”
Vanden Eykel said sealing requests were more common 10 or 20 years ago when rules weren’t as strict.
Still, requests to seal wills and probate documents succeed more often than they fail, he said.
The law rarely applies to the very wealthy.