Tobias Widow Gets Bulk Of Hedge Fund Managers Estate

Date: Friday, June 20, 2008
Author: FINalternatives.com

The widow of Circle T Partners founder Seth Tobias will keep the lion’s share of his estate after settling an ugly probate battle with his family.

Tobias’ family will split roughly $3.2 million of Tobias’ estate, with was estimated as being worth between $35 million and $40 million, under a deal approved by a Florida judge today. His brothers, Sam and Spence, who initiated the effort to disinherit Tobias’ widow, Filomena, whom they accused of killing their brother, will also get his investment business, New York-based Tobias Brothers. The firm is thought to be worth very little, and the family will have to pay their attorney from their share of the estate.

By contrast, Filomena Tobias gets the rest of her late husband’s liquid assets, as well as their real estate holdings in Florida. She will also become personal representative of the estate.

As promised, the two sides issued a joint press release. It read, in its entirety, “The parties have amicably resolved their difference and the allegations of the Petition will be withdrawn on probate court approval of this agreement.”

Tobias was found dead in his Jupiter, Fla., pool in September with alcohol and drugs in his system. As lurid details about the hedge fund honcho’s private life emerged, a former personal assistant to Tobias and his wife, William Ash, claimed that Filomena Tobias had murdered her husband and confessed to him her crime.

But police were unimpressed by Ash’s story—and inability to get Filomena Tobias to repeat her confession on tape—and in February announced that no charges would be filed against her